Spain, who are riding a six-game winning streak at the EHF EURO, have a prime chance to edge closer to their sixth semi-finals berth in a row with a win against Russia in main round group II on Friday.
Germany, who lost their first game in the tournament on Thursday, face a hefty challenge from Norway, and Sweden are also looking to add points against Poland.
GROUP II
Russia vs Spain
Friday, 21 January, 15:30 CET, live on EHFTV
- Spain won the last six games played at the EHF EURO and are on a record 16-game unbeaten run
- ‘Los Hispanos’ aim to become the second team to qualify for six consecutive semi-finals in the competition, after Croatia between 2004 and 2016, and also the first side to win medals in five consecutive EHF EURO editions
- Russia’s left back Sergei Mark Kosorotov, their top scorer at the EHF EURO 2022, will miss the game, due to a positive Covid-19 test earlier in the week
- defensive specialist Gedeon Guardiola and back Eduardo Gurbindo will tie Joan Cañellas and Alberto Entrerrios as the fourth-most capped Spanish players in the history of the EHF EURO, with 44 games each. Cañellas is currently out due to Covid
- Spain won the last four competitive games against Russia, two of which came at the EHF EURO, 30:27 in 2012 and 25:23 in 2016
Ferran Sole, Spain right wing: “If we beat Russia, it looks really good. At the moment, we are in great form, but things can change quickly. We have to be aware and we should not talk about the semi-finals too much.”
Velimir Petkovic, Russia coach: “We cannot change that much, as we miss those two important players, Kosorotov and Daniil Shishkarev. We have some players in our current line-up which had not been part of the preparation, this makes things harder. But you need to have high quality in this tournament.”
Poland vs Sweden
Friday, 21 January, 18:00 CET, live on EHFTV
- no other team has conceded more goals by this stage of the EHF EURO 2022 than Poland’s 123, with the Polish side setting the record for the largest number of goals conceded in a game on Thursday, 42, against Norway
- Swedish left wing Hampus Wanne is the second top goal scorer of the competition, with 28 goals, eight fewer than the leader of the standings, Dutch right back Kay Smits
- this will be Poland’s last chance to contend for a semi-finals berth, as they will be eliminated if they lose. They have a four-point gap behind Spain and Sweden, with only two games left after Friday’s match
- Sweden’s goalkeeper and captain, Andreas Palicka, is slowly building his form, taking his overall saving efficiency to 31 per cent at the EHF EURO 2022, after a 16-save game against Russia on Thursday
- the two sides met 26 times in competitive matches, with Sweden taking 12 wins, as opposed to Poland’s 10. However, Sweden have won just once at the EHF EURO – 28:26 in 2020 – in the last six games
Kamil Syprzak, Poland line player: “We have three games to play and nothing is over for us.”
Glenn Solberg, Sweden coach: “This is a new Polish team, a great team, which plays extremely physical and tough. We played two test matches against them in November, but their squad is different and better now. Especially, we have to take care on their line player – we expect a really hard game.”