Main round group II race begins
The Men’s EHF EURO 2026 main round gets fully into gear on Friday, with group II in Malmö playing their opening matches of the tournament’s second stage.
The six teams have progressed from preliminary round groups D, E and F, with Slovenia, Sweden and Iceland, respectively, topping their tables and bringing two points into the main round. Starting the main round on zero, as only points gained against teams progressing are carried over, Switzerland joined Slovenia from group D in Oslo, Croatia came from group E and Hungary from group F.
The sides now start the final race for the medal round, with two places in the semi-finals on the line and one spot in the 5/6 placement match to be decided over four rounds.
I am really excited about the future, as I think we have a good chance if we stay concentrate and focused on our mission in every game. We know if we deliver a good performance, we can beat any team in the world.
We have to be better in all departments, everywhere. From goalkeeper to defence to the fast breaks, how we run back attack. So this is the main focus just to have more concentration, much more discipline. That's the main point for the game against Iceland.
We’re not able to destroy everything of their attack, but we have to take some small areas where we don't want to get the goals. And then we have to get our running shoes on and run 60 minutes like we did in the first three games.
Switzerland play really good. They have an amazing coach, Andy Schmid, I love him and I think he was an amazing player and he's an amazing coach. It will be so difficult. Like every match here in the tournament. But if we want to continue with some chance to go to the semi-final, we need to try to win this match.
They play fast handball, strong defence, fast breaks, quick and clean return to defence. In general you have to try to find some weaknesses, but it's hard to find them.
They are mixing their defence with sometimes being more defensive with quite high three-three style defence. So against Slovenia, you will always get many tactical things in consideration, so that is for sure fun and interesting to play against and different from other opponents.
