In perhaps the best and most exciting game of the European Handball Championship, Denmark retained the upper hand in the semi-final against Iceland with 31:28. The island nation held its own against the hosts for a surprisingly long time, only in the final phase did the heavy favorites pull away a few goals and also benefited from some lucky referee decisions.
“We never gave up, but we got some strange decisions from these referees who were always very strict towards us,” goalkeeper Viktor Gísli Hallgrímsson criticized the Norwegian team Lars Jörum / Havard Kleven in an interview with the Icelandic sports portal “mlb.is”. The 25-year-old suspects that “they just don’t like us.”
The FC Barcelona goalkeeper continued to complain that the duo had double standards – especially in the heated final phase: “They were allowed to continue when they entered the circle, but when we were in the circle, the situations were always whistled off. We were never allowed to finish our attacks. That was very strange.”
“Strange performance” by the team at the European Handball Championship
Overall, Jörum / Kleven had brought a “strange performance” on the floor in Herning, said Hallgrímsson, who was also annoyed by the way the referees treated Gísli Kristjánsson from SC Magdeburg: “They simply stopped calling fouls against him at some point. They used his ability to provoke fouls against him.”
On the other hand, the same world handball player Mathias Gidsel was allowed to happen again and again. “I don’t fully understand that. Meanwhile, Gidsel is allowed to dribble, jump up and shoot and then a foul is called. That was a strange argument,” Hallgrímsson continued to vent his anger at the referees.
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It is not the first time that the Norwegian duo has been criticized at the European Handball Championships. After the main round on Wednesday, accusations had already been made from Sweden that Jörum and Kleven might not be up to the challenge. “Maybe the referees couldn’t withstand the pressure,” suspected former handball player Martin Frändesjö.
