The European Handball Championships will be held in Croatia from January 12 to 28, 2018.
Handball becomes the focus of everyone’s attention once again as the European Handball Championships will be played in Croatia from January 12 to 28, 2018. Let’s see what our Croatian handball team can do!
The Croatian national handball team, or the ‘Cowboys’, as we like to call them, will start their journey to the gold medal in Split, in Group A, where their opponents are Serbia, Iceland and Sweden. The groups were decided in a draw at the beginning of this summer. The three best teams from each group will advance to the second round. For the second round, the top three teams from Group A and B will play in Group I in Zagreb, and the top three teams from C and D will play in Varaždin. From these newly formed groups, the two best selections go to semifinals and finals, reports Gol.hr on November 16, 2017.
Our Croatian handball players were twice the Olympic winners. They also won the gold at the World Championships in 2003 in Portugal. Croatia has also been in the semi-finals of the last seven European championships, where only twice (2008 and 2010) they managed to play in the final. Both times Croatia entered the finals was with coach Lino Červar on the bench. Červarwas reinstated as the coach after the resignation of Željko Babić.
At the end of October, our national team had two strong, friendly matches with Slovenia. The first leg of the duel in Ljubljana ended without a winner, but the return match at the Arena Center in Zagreb saw Croatia celebrate.
Here’s a look at the schedule for the European Handball Championships.
GROUP PHASE:
Group A (Split)
January 12 (18:15): Sweden – Iceland
January 12 (20:30): Croatia – Serbia
January 14 (18:15): Serbia – Sweden
January 14 (20:30): Iceland – Croatia
January 16 (18:15): Serbia – Iceland
January 16 (20:30): Croatia – Sweden
Group B (Poreč)
January 12 (18:15): Belarus – Austria
January 12 (20:30): France – Norway
January 14 (18:15): Austria – France
January 14 (20:30): Norway – Belarus
January 16 (18:15): France – Belarus
January 16 (20:30): Norway – Austria
Group C (Zagreb)
January 13 (17:15): Germany – Montenegro
January 13 (19:30): Macedonia – Slovenia
January 15 (18:10): Slovenia – Germany
January 15 (20:30): Montenegro – Macedonia
January 17 (18:10): Germany – Macedonia
January 17 (20:30): Montenegro – Slovenia
Group D (Varaždin)
January 13 (18:15): Spain – Czech Republic
January 13 (20:30): Denmark – Hungary
January 15 (18:15): Hungary – Spain
January 15 (20:30): Czech Republic – Denmark
January 17 (18:15): Czech Republic – Hungary
January 17 (20:30): Spain – Hungary
Second Round:
Group I (Zagreb)
January 18: 3A – 2B
January 18: 2A – 3B
January 20: 1A – 1B
January 20: 2A – 2B
January 22: 3A – 1B
January 22: 1A – 3B
January 24: 1A – 2B
January 24: 2A – 1B
January 24: 3A – 3B
Group II (Varaždin)
January 19: 3C – D2
January 19th: C2 – D3
January 21: C1 – D1
January 21: C2 – D2
January 23: C3 – D1
January 23: C1 – D3
January 24: C1 – D2
January 24: C2 – D1
January 24: C3 – D3
Final Weekend (Zagreb):
January 26 (15:30): Game for fifth place
26 January (18:00): Semi-finals
January 26 (20:30): Semi-finals
January 28 (18:00): Game for third place
January 28 (20:30): Final
Tickets can be purchased for the matches here.
Translated from Gol.hr