Men's EHF EURO 2026 post-match flash quotes: 15 January
HERNING/OSLO – Comments from players and coaches after matches in groups A and C on day 1 of the Men's EHF EURO 2026.
GERMANY vs AUSTRIA 30:27 (12:8)
Tom Kiesler (GER) - centre back
On the physical test posed by Austria:
"It was a tough game, very physical game, we matched the physicality of the opponent very good and that helped us a lot to win the game."
On Germany's highly energetic approach:
"We try to play every match with the same intension and it doesn't matter for us if it's the first game or the second or third."
On the next match, against Serbia:
"I hope we will win and we will train about Serbia tomorrow and then we will see what we can do in the match."
Tobias Wagner (AUT) – line player
On the defeat:
"In the decisive moments we weren't on our top and to be honest, I let my team down a bit today, nothing to deny as I didn't play that good and when I can do a better match, we can win this game."
On the team's performance:
"Overall, I think we can be proud of the game and it was a good fight and we can see that we can beat Germany if everyone is playing on his highest level. For now we are disappointed, but we have the final against Spain."
On whether Germany's squad depth was crucial in deciding the winner:
"No, I think they also played with eight players, and the only players who came from the bench were Juri Knorr and Marko Grgić. These were the only players that changed a little bit and I don't think that at this moment, that made any difference."
On the next match, versus Spain:
"Every game in this group is important because in the best case we take two more wins and go to the main round, but now we have to fight to go to the main round and we have to win both games and we want to take the first step with a win against Spain."
NORWAY vs UKRAINE 39:22 (19:11)
Jonas Wille (NOR) – Norway head coach
On the match:
“It was really satisfying because the players enjoyed the moment. They came into the match with a great attitude. It seemed like they enjoyed playing, and I think that was the most important thing, to be able to win today, to win comfortably. It was a good performance by the team.”
On what he expects when the team is leading comfortably:
“Every player wants to show the audience here — because we also have the last championship from last year in the same arena in the back of our minds, when we disappointed the crowd and lost the first game — we didn’t need to speak too much about that, because I think it comes from the inside of every player.
“We wanted to get as many players as possible into the championship, so we substituted all the players, and I’m happy that we got that opportunity.”
Torbjørn Bergerud (NOR) – goalkeeper
On the match:
“It’s always good to play a first match in a championship, so we are very satisfied with the win today.
“We started playing a little bit nervous, but I think we showed our professionalism through this match, and played actually very well and won by a lot of goals, as we should have.”
On whether the match went to plan:
“Almost everything went our way. There’s always some small things; in every match there are some things you can do a little better, but we should be satisfied with this victory and just look forward to the next one.”
On playing at home:
“It’s brilliant. It’s always nice to play matches at home. There was a lot of spectators today, and I am very hopeful there will be even more for the next two matches.”
Sander Sagosen (NOR) – left back
On starting the competition with a victory:
“It’s really good for our confidence to start this way, with a large win and playing pretty good. We had the chance to give the opportunity to every player to make their first steps in the EURO, so that’s good as well. Hopefully we can move on, play even better against Czechia to arrive fully ready against France.”
On the support Norway got from their fans:
“It’s always a pleasure to have the fans singing the anthem and showing the colours. It never gets old, to be honest. It’s a great motivation, you want to play at your best when you play in front of your family. I hope everybody liked what they saw and that we can get the same amount of support for the next games.”
On the game from the younger players:
“That is what we wanted, to be able for players like Patrick Anderson to play at a very high level. He showed some great things today, scored many goals and he will be very important for us. All of these young guys are really confident, they play great, really.”
Vadym Brazhnyk (UKR) – Ukraine head coach
On the match:
“Norway is a really strong team. We were prepared, but they were too strong for us.”
On what they focused on during the game:
“We focused on their key players. We know that Norway’s a very fast team and they had fast breaks, but we had too many lost balls and didn’t manage to keep them.”
Ihor Turchenko (UKR) – left back
On the match:
“Norway, it’s a top team, they play really good handball, they have very good players, top players playing really good clubs, and they play at home.
“We make a lot of mistakes in attack, also we play some moments not good in defence, and they play better than us. We lose a lot of balls in attack, so it’s like this.”
On what to take from the game:
“We have some moments in defence when we really fight, we fight good, and in attack also we have some good situations. I can say not more because we lose a lot. It’s not possible to say that we make a good game.”
SPAIN vs SERBIA 29:27 (19:15)
Imanol Garciandia (ESP) – right back
On the match:
"The first game, it's the toughest mentally, and when you have the most pressure because you haven't started. That's why it was so important to get the two points and now it's a great beginning, let's continue with this."
On the performance and room for improvement:
"There are always nerves in the beginning and I didn't think that we had so many lost balls, as we only had two in the first half and I'm not sure about the second half, but we had some missed shots and I think we can maybe fix that. We made a really good job in defence and in attack and how we played, and even though we had some missed shots, we can work with this.”
Dragan Pechmalbec (SRB) – line player
On the defeat:
"I think we lose the game more than they win the game, we made a lot of mistakes. We started the game bad and we let them lead by three, four goals and we fought hard to come back and came really close and we had a goal (chance) to come back at one, but we made mistakes and against Spain you can't make these mistakes because they punish you directly.
“Anyways, it was still not that really bad game for us and we're still alive and we will play a final against Germany in the next game."
On the next match, against Germany:
"I think we played not a really good game and we can do much, much better everywhere on the court in attack, in defence and make more saves and the efficiency in the shot. Now we need to be perfect and to start winning against Germany. This game will be like a final for us."
FRANCE vs CZECHIA 42:28 (20:14)
Guillaume Gille (FRA) – France head coach
On opening with a victory:
“I am satisfied because we won this first game, and it was the first step in this European championship. It’s quite satisfying to see that all the players in the team had the opportunity to play and to play a good game. For a first match in this kind of tournament it’s really important.”
On what he wants to improve:
“A lot of things to improve. The first game in a competition is always something special, so we want to move on step by step and of course try to improve ourselves in the defence, also in the contra-attack and also in attack.
“It’s always the same process. We want to be stronger and stronger day after day, and it’s a daily process for us.”
Aymeric Minne (FRA) – centre back
On the victory:
“It’s always good to start a competition with two points, and to win easily like that gives us a lot of confidence. Of course, nothing was perfect, but we did expect it. We have some time to work we know what we must do better and I am sure that the next game will see an improvement.”
On taking on centre back duties after Nédim Rémili’s absence:
“I am quite satisfied with the way I played. I was prepared, I did it in the preparation already. I tried to play as fast as possible, just the way I like it. We pushed the balls early in the game to take the advantage and make it as big as possible as early.”
Dylan Nahi (FRA) – left wing
On the victory:
“We wanted to show respect to the Czechia team, as they can be really dangerous if we let them play their game. We started strong, managed to keep the pace and to even increase it in the second half. Of course, nothing was perfect but we would have signed beforehand for a 14-goal victory.”
On the room France have for improvement:
“It would not be funny if everything was perfect on day one. We played excellent in phases, not so in others. It’s good, we have a lot of new players, some are playing their first international competition with us, we are still learning as a team. I loved what I saw and the energy we put into that first game.”
Daniel Kubeš (CZE) – Czechia coach
On the match:
“We didn’t manage to get a good start in the game. We were behind a little, and then there were two situations which influenced the result. One was the red card for our pivot (Jan Užek) and then the injury for Tomáš Piroch. Those two situations were very unfortunate for us.”
On what they talked about in their timeouts:
“We want to play offensively, we want our guys to adapt and to push and push and push. That’s what we did, until the gap lengthened.”
Tomáš Mrkva (CZE) – goalkeeper
On the match:
“First of all I want to thank our spectators, they gave us energy all the game, it was incredible.
“I’m proud of the guys, because we were like six goals down but we kept fighting, it was very very good.
“But at the end it was the better quality of team France that was the difference.”
On what they were happy with:
“We were very good in attack, and if we didn’t see mistakes in the defence, then we could be a better team in the game.
“I have to say I like the energy of the team.”
Matěj Nantl (CZE) – line player
On the game:
“We are of course really disappointed, we did not play good, especially in the second half. The start of our game was really bad, and against such a strong team, when you are led by six immediately, it’s hard to recover.”
On their good periods in the game:
“We showed for some minutes that we could play good but against France, you have to play extra good for 60 minutes. We lacked consistency in our performance, and that’s what led us to lose.”
