Denmark, France, Sweden, Spain – these are the top four in world handball. In the last three major tournaments, these four nations made it to the semi-finals.
Bad news for the competition: The tournament tree shows such a constellation again this year. Spain and France are on the “German” side and would play in a main round group, Sweden and Denmark are on the other side.
Denmark – the measure of all things
At the last three major tournaments, Denmark became world champion twice and was a very narrow runner-up to European champions against neighboring Sweden in 2022. Coach Nikolaj Jacobsen has a selection of top players at his disposal that is second to none.
The goalkeeper team around Niklas Landin, the backcourt around the young stars Mathias Gidsel and Simon Pytlick, for whom the “young” should actually be replaced by “super” by now, the pivot team around Magnus Saugstrup and Simon Hald, the lightning-fast outside… The Danes are outstanding in every position. The team simply has no real weak point and should once again be the team to beat if they want to win the title.
Sweden – Gottfridsson with special Morivation
Jim Gottfridsson broke his hand in the quarterfinals of the 2023 World Cup. And who knows what would have happened for the Swedes if the superstar and playmaker Tre Kronor had remained in the tournament. Norwegian coach Glenn Solberg’s team was eliminated relatively clearly against France and also lost the game for third place against Spain.
Up until then, the Swedes had played an outstanding tournament and had beaten Hungary, Iceland and Portugal one after the other in the “group of death” of the main round. In the tied game, when things don’t move forward quickly, the Swedes need their leader in the attack, which was particularly evident against France. With him in full possession of his strength and with his excellent speed play after winning the ball, anything is possible for the yellow-blue team. Maybe even defend the title.
Spain – again with the old heroes
Joan Canellas (38), Jorge Maqueda (35), Adria Figueras (35), Angel Fernandez Perez (35), Gonzalo Perez de Vargas (33), Alex Dujshebaev (31) – many of the Iberians’ important players and top performers are now in the autumn have arrived at their handball career – or are about to do so. Accordingly, national coach Jordi Ribera has also called up one or two youngsters into the squad. Four players in the 20-man squad are between 18 and 22 years old, but apart from possibly left winger Daniel Fernandez from TVB Stuttgart, they are unlikely to play a major role. In goal, Rodrigo Corrales apparently didn’t get fit in time after back problems, Magdeburg’s Sergey Hernandez is the second man behind Perez de Vargas. Not a big loss in quality.
The Spaniards’ defense will probably be an extremely tough nut to crack for the competition, despite the advanced age of important defensive players like Maqueda. The Spaniards traditionally punish almost every technical error or missed throw with a lightning-fast counterattack. At the front, a lot of the tied game depends on the Dujshebaev brothers Alex and Daniel and the game with the circle runners – nothing new, but still extremely difficult to defend. For Ribera, the biggest difficulty may be giving his key experienced players enough rest.
France – Pure athleticism and lots of “U30”
Probably no team in world handball has such outstanding athleticism as the French. Still. Because although Nikola and Luka Karabatic are now 39 and 35 years old and Kentin Mahé and Valentin Porte already have a number of tournaments under their belt, the French could easily put together a “U30 team” that could still win the title. With the Spanish it would probably be more difficult.
Dika Mem, Nedim Remili, Elohim Prandi, Ludovic Fabregas, Dylan Nahi, Yanis Lenne and Kiel goalkeeper Samir Bellahcene, for example, would be a starting lineup that would be completely without a player over the age of 28 and would still cause problems for every nation. The individual class and enormous athleticism of Guillaume Gille’s team, most of which already have a lot of experience at the top level, make the French once again a hot contender for the title.
Norway and Iceland – the hottest “outsiders”
The three nations that are most likely to be able to break up the phalanx of the “big four” are the Norwegians, who around Sander Sagosen have always been among the top teams at major tournaments in recent years, but have often narrowly missed out on the big hit and the Icelanders, whose offense is likely to be very strong again, but whose defense still has one or two question marks. The young German team will still have to prove itself.