When it comes to number of sprints, on an individual level, no player in the main round came close to Germany’s Timo Kastening, with 160. Next was Austria’s Sebastian Frimmel with 144. Of the top 12 players in terms of number of sprints, all but one are wings.
The outlier is Denmark’s Niclas Kirkeløkke, who has been an important defensive specialist for his side and likely recorded his high number of sprints in the transitions back to the line.
Austria centre back Lukas Hutecek ranks clear at the top for individual time of ball possession and number of passes, with 675 passes ahead of Portugal’s Miguel Martins on 535. Hutecek spent 23 minutes and 11 seconds with the ball in his hands across the three preliminary round matches, with Martins recording 19 minutes and 53 seconds.
Individual time of possession and number of passes are strongly correlated in most cases, so the 12 players on the two lists are almost identical – and almost all centre backs.
But there are some differences that highlight individual playing styles. Three players appear in the top 12 for time of possession but not for passes, showing their tendency for breakthroughs: the Netherlands’ Luc Steins, Hungary’s Máté Lékai and Iceland’s Ómar Ingi Magnusson. Then there are key playmakers who replace these three among the top pass makers: Denmark’s Simon Pytlick, Hungary’s Gergö Fazekas and Iceland’s Gisli Kristjansson.
Moving to the other end of the court, Denmark have both the most saves, 53, and the highest efficiency, an outstanding 43.4 per cent, thanks to Niklas Landin and Emil Nielsen. Sweden and Germany are next, with 41 saves at 36 per cent and 40 saves at 36.4 per cent, respectively.
Individually, the most saves and highest efficiency were recorded by Germany’s Andreas Wolff, with 31 saves at an average of 39.2 per cent across their three matches. Sweden’s Andreas Palicka and Landin were just behind with 38.9 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively.
Many of these KINEXON statistics, updated on a match-by-match basis, can be seen in the player statistics section of the EHF EURO 2024 site.
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