Men's EHF EURO 2026 flash quotes: 30 January
HERNING — Comments from players and coaches after the Men's EHF EURO 2026 semi-finals and 5/6 placement match.
SEMI-FINALS
Germany vs Croatia 31:28 (17:15)
Dagur Sigurdsson (ISL) — Croatia head coach
On the match:
“Germany played a very good game. We played a very good first half. In the goalkeeper performance, there was too much difference. When [Dominik] Kuzmanović came in, we could put them under pressure. But they are two young goalkeepers — they will learn from this match. In the second half, it was a bit chaotic. We had to change more players in defence and attack, and the seven-versus-six did not work that much. The first half was excellent. We could control the tempo, but then it was difficult, when we were always some goals behind.”
5/6 PLACEMENT MATCH
Portugal vs Sweden 36:35 (16:16)
Paulo Pereira (POR) — head coach
On the match against Sweden:
“I think it was an amazing game for spectators. I think we suffered a little bit more, but we are thinking about solutions at final whistle a little less than spectators. But it was I think a very good game for our sport. I think Portugal deserve to be between the very good teams because we put a little bit more emotion, a little bit more the romantic part of sport, and I think all sports need these kinds of teams, that have ideas, that have clever people that fight. I think it’s wonderful to see how we play. Sometimes it’s not possible to win for several factors, but I can’t be more happy with this group of people that send very far away the Portugal name and our country, so I think I am very, very proud of these players, these guys.”
On the young team and the future:
“Always that we try to play we try to beat our proper records, our best result. We did it with the World Championship. We did it with the European Championship. And now, what we can say, in the next World Championship, of course, we will play for the medals, because we stay in the fourth place. Our goal, it will be this one. Maybe the result is another one that we don’t want, we don’t like, but it must be our mindset to continue to improve. Some details that we must improve. We have a lot of things to improve. But we will fight for it for sure.”
Luís Frade (POR) – line player
On finishing the tournament with a victory:
“This is the perfect ending for us, we get the best position ever in this championship, the scenario tonight was crazy again. The main round was not the best for us, we lost one game too many and of course, when you only qualify for the placement game, you are not that happy. But I am proud because we managed to focus again in order to deliver tonight.”
On writing history for Portuguese handball:
“Right now, it does not feel like anything, I have been physically dead for the last 20 minutes of the game. But I am sure that, in a few days, we will look at the ranking and tell ourselves that what we did is just, crazy. We have been writing the history of our sport in Portugal for the past few years, and the only thing I can hope for is that we can continue on this road.”
On the final minutes of the game:
“Honestly, I did not feel anything anymore. It was just pure adrenaline. The main round we played was so aggressive that to play one last game felt like a huge task. Even though you prepare for that, it’s still very tough. Of course, you can say that Martim (Costa)’s goal was amazing, and it was, but it was really a teamwork.”
Michael Apelgren (SWE) — Sweden head coach
On the match:
“It was a very tight game all the time. Of course we could have defended a little bit better, but in the end it was small things.”
On the tournament as a whole:
“Of course we are disappointed, we wanted more. I think teams who finish where we are are good enough to also go to the semi-finals. We felt that we were starting the tournament very good, but in the end these small things didn’t go our way, exactly like this last match. It was a little bit symptomatic of this tournament.”
Mikael Appelgren (SWE) – goalkeeper
On the defeat:
“It’s a big disappointment, of course, because everything is decided on one shot and I feel like we had played pretty good before. We would have deserved to play in the overtime, but there was not much we could do on the last action. It is a disappointment, of course, because we would have liked to finish the tournament on a high.”
On the tournament as a whole:
“We would have liked to fight for medals, this was our main goal before the tournament. But I think that we did not play well enough in the main round to get there, especially against Iceland. Playing this placement game was definitely not what we expected. There things to take and things to work on from this championship.”
On the retirement of his goalkeeper teammate Andreas Palicka:
“It would have been cool for him to finish a victory, I am quite disappointed I was not able to help him do that. He is one of the guys who has so much experience that he always helped his teammates, he was not only my teammate but also someone I like as a person. He was a massive worker and an impressive player on the court.”
Photo © kolektiff images
