
Serbia shock Spain, Austria end German winning streak
Round 3 of the Men’s EHF EURO 2026 Qualifiers concluded with many thrilling matches all over Europe on Thursday, including close wins and three draws. The biggest surprise was Serbia’s victory against Spain and the Portuguese draw in Poland.
Defensively, it was good, but all in all, the tempo of the game was quite low. I am happy of course that we won the game. At the same time, I am not too happy with our performance, but the two points are, of course, satisfactory.
I can be proud of my players, we tried everything and it was a very tough game. We missed some players and today Finland was better. Our defense was ok, but the quality in the attack was not what was desired.
I am still emotional to play like this against a team as strong as Spain; they left me speechless. I am so proud of all my players, the young ones were amazing just like the experienced ones. Very important victory on our road to EURO and I think this will be a great motivation for the match in Spain!
We knew that this would be a very tough match. We did a great job in first half, and it was a pity to not obtain more goals to reach the half-time over Serbia. In the second half, we had a lot of problems at the moment Serbia took advantage. We fought very hard to enter the match in last minutes, but we hadn't been lucky in this moment.
26 goals from Germany show that we played a really good defence. I'm not surprised. We've always fought for 60 minutes in the last few games; we've always come back, and that shows our character, our team spirit. The crowd was incredible. That was an incredible performance from my boys and from our fans.
We were leading the whole time and still had a chance to win with the last throw. Of course I'm very disappointed. But in the end we didn't deserve it because we made quite a few mistakes ourselves. We simply have to play better on Saturday and make better use of our chances.
A draw is fair, although we are dissatisfied. Of course, we could have done some things better, and then we would probably be happy with the victory, but we cannot be sad about the draw. We had the match under control, but I do not agree that we let the victory slip through our fingers. Portugal played well seven out of six, and then we were not that effective in defense, but we had our chances.
We have to be very happy, because we had many injured players. We had to change plans many times, even yesterday after another injury. It was a good match, though. We kept chances and believed would win to the end. We are still learning to manage emotions, so I am very happy for my players and the draw.
We need to concentrate on the upcoming game and win. That's the reality of this campaign. Right now, I'm thinking less about today's result and more about the path. It looks better in a few aspects, and ultimately, to get to the European Championship, we need to establish a clear path, and I think we're on the right path.


















