The 2020 EURO finished last weekend in Sweden-Austria-Norway cooperation with Spain defending its title. We asked our head coach to evaluate what he has seen on the tournament.

 

I was watching the preliminary and main rounds on TV, and on the Final weekend I was in Stockholm. I was with our Managing Director, the Team Manager, and Carlos Perez. I think that the quality matches were probably the first three or four games, because later the players started to get tired. They did not play so fast. This was the pity of the EURO, that the level so equal, the teams are really strong and you need to spend a lot of energy to win every match. When you go there, you feel it. Even the games where the difference is eight or nine goals, you have to put out the energy all the time. This EURO was different, because you could qualify for the Olympics and all these things are plus for the teams. It is not just to get the medal, or win the tournament, but to qualify for the World championships and Olympics as well. People are crazy about the Olympics. When you see the preliminary round, the teams that still have a chance to reach qualification give everything they have, but those who are already qualified go down almost instantly. I was watching all games last weekend, even the one for the fifth position. I was talking with people from the EHF, and I told them after the final, when the players were tired, that if you bring someone who has never seen handball, would ask if these are really the best players of Europe right now? I think that they should solve that the players arrive fresher to the final. It was a good game, but could have been better. I know it is hard to make the schedule and everything.

 

 

Lauge had a little problem before the tournament, and had to rest for almost ten days out of the preparation. He was about twenty days without handball, but played for almost 60 minutes, and could not have played better. He played well, but could not be better. Our Slovenian guys were the only one who were fighting for a medal. They had a great performance. They played with confidence. It was a pity that Marguc was there and did not play. Nilsson and Sweden had the problem from lacking a left hander. It is hard to play without one, and it is hard to have a good tournament. Andreas was playing well, he was the top scorer of his team. Macedonia did not have a good championship unfortunately. They were fighting but could not reach the main round. Manaskov was great, he played a lot, and scored important goals from penalties. Serbia also suffered. Cupara had one game only, our of the three group games, so it hard to have a clear vision of what happened there. Hungary played well also, with Székely.

 

 

The national teams are not the clubs, the level is different. They had 10 days to build a team, which is I think is impossible in handball. They could build the team, that could play fantastic in defense with great goalkeeping by Mikler. Székely could also help. They made it to the main round, and I think it is a pity that they could not reach the fifth-sixth place at the end. They played equally to their opponents and lost only three games, out which only two at the end. They made a good tournament, and I think Lékai, Bodó, Ancsin and Juhász can give more quality to the team, besides the one that are already there and boost the performance. It is going to be fantastic for the Hungarian team, which will arrive to the home EURO two years from now, in a good place.

 

 

The secret? I think is to believe in the team. If you can make a team, you can reach anything. They have been playing together for a long time now, and they know each other a lot. When they come to the national team, they only need a few trainings to get the feeling of each other. They fight in the defense, everyone knows there what to do. They have the best goalkeeper couple in the world right now. Spanish defense is all about anticipation. They steal some balls, and boom, run to attack and quickly reach a five goals difference. Spanish handball is all about this, defense, goalkeepers and running. They have a great system, everything is going well. They have the experience. We have good players, good tactics and it is clear that it works.

 

Photo: Dávid Vörös