BUDAPEST, January 30 (Xinhua) – Sweden won the EHF EURO 2022 men’s handball championship here on Sunday and beat Spain 27-26 in a fantastic match, while the bronze medal went to Denmark, who defeated France 35-32.
The game was extremely tight, as it is not uncommon in a final, and the Spaniards took the lead within the last minute of the first half, thanks to an effective defense backed by goalkeeper Andreas Palicka, who was chosen as the player of the match for his performance.
Although Spain managed to lead with two goals in a short time at the beginning of the second half, but after 17-15, neither team held an advantage of more than one goal.
The final result was set in the last minutes. The silence at the position 26-26 was finally broken by an extra time penalty, called Ekberg who became the hero for Sweden.
“I can not describe how I feel now. It really means a lot to us and to the whole country because it was our first gold medal in the last 20 years and we lost three finals in the closest so we are at the top now,” said Swedish right winger Valter Chrintz after the match.
“Now I can not say that I am happy with the silver medal, but we did a really good tournament. I did not expect that we would be able to reach the final. It is very tough to lose like this. We will have time to think again. And we can say that it was a fantastic EHF EURO 2022, but right now it is difficult to think about it, said Joan Canellas, from the Spanish team, to reporters immediately after the match.
Denmark returned to the podium after eight years. The feat is even more so historical, that the Danes have never defeated the French at EHF EURO, on the five times they met on the floor. Kentin Mahe received the Match Player award after scoring eight goals and making seven assists.
“It was a tough and exciting match. We had a fantastic defense and a strong goalkeeper. When Matthias Gidsel went out early we fought even harder. We fought like crazy the last 60 minutes of the match. I am so happy with this win and I am very proud of my team “, commented Denmark’s coach Nikolaj Jacobsen after the victory.
The men’s EHF EURO 2022, starting on 13 January, took place in five arenas in Hungary and Slovakia.
A total of 24 teams competed in six groups in the 15th European Championship and 65 matches took place over 18 days.
Source: sn.dk