Flash quotes: 15 December
VIENNA - Comments from players and coaches after Norway beat Denmark 31:23 in the final and Hungary beat France 25:24 in the 3/4 placement match on Sunday.
DENMARK 23:31 NORWAY
Jesper Jensen (DEN) – head coach
On winning silver:
“It’s a proud tournament overall. I think we had a shot in this final, but especially our first half was really bad. We had the chances and the possibility maybe to lead by three, four, five goals.
“But Norway came out strong and once again Silje Solberg(-Østhassel) performed as she did in the first half.
“They deserved it, they played a tremendous tournament.”
On the key moment in the final:
“The key moment was in the first half. We had the chances.
“It was the first final where a lot of the girls had a leading role, and it was too hard to handle sometimes. That’s pretty human.
“All in all, we had across the second half too many technical faults, and we forgot a little bit to get our heads towards the goal, and we went sideways, and you can’t allow that against Norway.”
On the final and the Danish performances in general:
“Norway are the deserved champions. The first half was our best first half, and we could have led by four, five goals after 20 minutes, as Norway did not play that well. But then we had problems with Henny (Reistad) and Silje (Solberg).
“In general, I am proud of my team and the way we played this tournament. Two weeks ago, nobody knew how this EURO would run for us. Now we were in the final again, this makes me proud.
“Norway cruised through the Olympic Games, Norway cruised through the EURO – both times winning all matches. They are the team to beat.”
On Thorir Hergeirsson:
“With you, Norway showed extraordinary performances in the last 15 years and set new standards in women’s handball. It is a very emotional thing for me to say goodbye to you now after this final, we have the biggest respect for each other.
“It is an honour to face you in your last match, though I had hoped to beat you. But you always won against me. I have bought a present for you in Denmark to show you my deepest respect.”
Mie Højlund (DEN) – right back
On winning silver:
“I’m sure that when I look back on this tournament maybe some weeks from now I’ll be proud of us and proud of how we fought throughout the tournament.
“Probably not so proud of our second half, I think that’s the worst we played throughout the tournament, so that’s a big disappointment to play a second half like that in the final.”
On the match as a whole:
“I actually think that throughout the whole game you could feel the nerves, you could feel how much it meant to everybody, both Norway and Denmark.
“In the second half we just forgot the intensity, you could see in our eyes and it’s a disappointment to not recognise yourself in the second half, especially when you’ve played a tournament like us, throughout the whole tournament when we’ve just been direct to the goal, and we weren’t in the second half.”
Anne Mette Hansen (DEN) – left back
On what changed in the second half:
“I feel they were a lot better in the second half than us. We didn’t manage to score.”
Rikke Iversen (DEN) – line player
On what happened in the second half:
“I think it was a combination of many things, so I don’t want to point out now what it was, because I just think that every person makes mistakes and you can’t do that in a final. And if each of us keeps making a mistake then we never get ahead in the game. It’s sad that we had to play a second half like this.”
On how this performance compares to the previous ones in the tournament:
“I think it was a bad second half, but an ok first half. I think the game against France in the semi-final showed what our level can be. This is just a game you really want to forget and throw in the trash, because we can’t be champions if we are not able to play better.”
Thorir Hergeirsson (ISL) – head coach, Norway
On his last victory in charge of the team:
“I’m very proud of the team. It’s been a fantastic journey.
“We had many new players this year in the EURO, some older players, and a good mix, and it’s big for me to win the title here with this new team. I will miss every one of them, already tomorrow.
“It will be a special one. I will remember this, maybe a little bit more because it’s the last one. I will take with me the journey through the championship and all the wins, especially the last one here against Denmark.
“They gave all, maybe they gave a little bit extra today for me, but they always give their best and that’s maybe not something new today.
“I am very happy, as this was a special match today, my last one. The girls always work hard, but I recognised that they even worked harder today, they gave a little extra. We win together, and the ‘we’ means, the whole coaching staff and the team.
“My staff holds me up, this is simply a great team work. Of course, we have individual class, today like from (Henny) Reistad and (Silje) Solberg, they were very good.”
On the match:
“We were not precise enough in attack and shooting against Anna Kristensen in the first quarter or first half, was not good. She was making great saves. So we had about 16 attacks in the first 16, 18 minutes which we didn’t get anything out of in the shots, and we do technical faults.
“We were good in defence, we had Silje Solberg very good in the goal, so the match is equalled. In the second half we were much better in attack and much more focused, so overall a very good development of the game.”
On Denmark and Jesper Jensen:
“It is always tough to play Denmark, and I have to say thank you, Jesper, for a great cooperation with the Danish federation in the last years. I will miss colleagues like Jesper, when I stop now. I know him for so long, even before he became Danish national team coach. He coached our players in Esbjerg, and really treated them and formed them well.”
Silje Solberg-Østhassel (NOR) – goalkeeper
On winning another EHF EURO gold medal:
“It’s maybe not the same as the first time, but like every other it’s really a great feeling that we managed to do it again and again. I’m really proud to be on this team. I feel everybody contributes to every victory.”
On their performance in the final:
“First half it’s close, it’s tough. We miss a lot of great chances on a really amazing goalkeeper (Anna Kristensen), she played really well this championship.
“But we stay calm and in the game, and during the second half we continue working, play really strong in defence and we get many easy goals, so step by step we showed that we’re really a strong team.”
On this being the last championship for head coach Thorir Hergeirsson:
“It has a lot of power and emotions. We really wanted to give a great finish for Thorir. It’s a dream for him to finish this way to end his handball career as a coach. We were really happy to have him so many years, and I’m really happy that we were able to give him this in the end.”
Stine Skogrand (NOR) – right back
On how she is feeling:
“It’s an amazing feeling. To go flawless through the championship, we don’t do that so often. I think we played an amazing tournament, we played better and better and I think the second half today showed what really is inside us and I am so proud of us.”
On what this trophy means to her:
“It means so much. I’ve been away for weeks now from my family. Everything makes sense when we win the tournament, and also for Thorir (Hergeirsson) and Camilla’s (Herrem) last championship, we could not end in a better way.”
Emilie Hovden (NOR) – right wing
On the win:
“It’s an amazing feeling. I cannot describe it, it was amazing. We struggled a bit in the start and we kept going. We had one goal and then our defence was really strong and they could not find solutions. It was a long second half and I was just hoping the time would go fast. In the end we won and it was amazing.”
On what this trophy means to her:
“It means a lot. I feel so happy to be a part of the team. The team is just amazing, amazing girls, it’s been a perfect month. And the fact that we could finish it this way with Thorir (Hergeirsson) was just amazing.”
Katrine Lunde (NOR) – goalkeeper
On what this trophy means to her:
“It always means a lot. When you want to be in the top three, because that’s our goal for the national team, we want to be in the top, and you work again and again for it, then of course you are really happy when you get to go. And it’s a good ending for the coach and for Camilla Herrem, it was their last match today. In this regard it’s a bit more sensitive, more emotional.”
FRANCE 24:25 HUNGARY
Sebastien Gardillou (FRA) – head coach
On defeat against Hungary:
“Fighting, that was the only difference today. It's a way of life. We worked hard, we have no compensation for this, but my heart is big. I'm proud of my players because we did what we talked and this is sport.
“Hungary won this game by only one goal, we were so close and I will see later what we could have made in this game. But it's done. This championship is finished. We are fourth and this is our place.”
Grace Zaadi Deuna (FRA) – centre back
On the game against Hungary:
“It was a tight game for (the) bronze medal that we lost. We missed too many shots, and at six metres. When we had the ball to score for plus one we didn't score and they came back.
“Then we were behind them and lost a lot of energy on that. In attack, we struggled to be more aggressive one-against-one. It wasn't our day.”
On losing second straight EURO bronze medal match:
“I still have this taste in my mouth from two years ago how I felt after that loss against Montenegro. It was the same scenario – we won in the main round, and then lost the bronze medal match. So, we really need to work on this and make deep introspection on how we handle the game, how we came to this game and what we have put into this game.
“We maybe came into this game with disappointment after the semi-final, but Hungary were more angry than us and this is what I hate the most.”
Lucie Granier (FRA) – right wing
On what changed from the main round win against Hungary:
“I think the first difference is that we had more matches in the meantime. I think Zsófi (Szemerey), the goalkeeper, had a really good tournament. I don’t know what changed, but the result is this.”
On the performance of the team:
“I think we fight every time, but we can do more. We gave everything tonight, we have a lot of mistakes we need to improve to be better in this competition. But we fight and I think we need to continue to do this, to work for next time.”
Vlagyimir Golovin (HUN) – head coach
On winning bronze:
“I would like to thank everyone today. We put everything we have on the court. We had injured players, players with illnesses, but somehow we made the impossible. We won a great battle and I am proud and happy we can bring this bronze medal home.”
On their performance:
“Zsófi (Szemerey) was great and fantastic, but also defence in front of her amazing. Everyone did their job and it resulted in (a) bronze medal that we can proudly wear.”
Katrin Klujber (HUN) – right back
On what the medal means to her and the team:
“This is a real dream come true, something for the history books. With this team spirit that we have and the way we fight together, and also the work that we do, not just this year, but for the past years, we can say that we deserve to be where we are right now.”
On the future of the team:
“I think that this success now can mean extra motivation and extra confidence. Let’s hope that it will also result in extra performance in the future. I believe that this can only bring this team forward and further.”
Petra Vamos (HUN) – centre back
On winning bronze:
“It's almost impossible to describe how I feel right now. This is the best Christmas present I have ever gotten. And I'm so proud of our team. We work really hard and today we went and fought from the first second to the last one. I think that the key was our team spirit.
“We know that we lost against France in the main round and we lost against Norway, but we didn't give up. We had a goal on this tournament and we achieved it. So it's a really big success for us.”
On the last moments of the game:
“I wasn't brave enough to think about the feeling in last moments. I was like, OK, we have to defend, we have to be there for each other no matter what. And in the end it was just three seconds and I was like, OK, girls, we can't lose this. We have to win this game.
“My body is full of adrenaline so it's hard too hard to say everything what's on my mind. This tournament was amazing for us. We developed and improved, I think it is amazing.”
On Hungary:
“We have a young team. After the Olympics it became little hard to believe in ourselves again because we lost against Sweden. This tournament showed that we are really strong and we are really close to the top level of handball. This will give us a lot of energy.”
Csenge Kuczora (HUN) – centre back
On the fans that came to support Hungary:
“I am really happy that the atmosphere, the fans were amazing. It was a full house in the arena. We wanted to fight like crazy and we did it, so we are really happy.”
Nikoletta Papp (HUN) – right back
On their performance:
“It’s amazing what we did tonight, I don’t know what to say. I am speechless. We are very proud and we are thankful for the supporters that came today. We just feel amazing.”
On what the bronze medal means to her and the team:
“This means everything. We took a big step and I think we are mentally strong, that is what led us here.”
On the fans in the stands:
“We are just grateful that today they came for us and made an amazing atmosphere here. It’s so much easier to play like this, with a full house. We are thankful.”
