The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Handball European Championship 2022: Iceland's surprise ends bitterly

2022-01-27T11:52:08.306Z


Despite many corona cases, Iceland was the surprise of this handball championship. They would have needed help from world champion Denmark to reach the semi-finals – but they had other plans.


Enlarge image

Iceland's coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson at a European Championship game

Photo: BERNADETT SZABO / REUTERS

The Icelandic handball keeper Björgvin Páll Gústavsson doesn't mince his words.

He called the preliminary round elimination of the EM host from Hungary a "skammar", a disgrace on Twitter.

Never before has a team from an organizer tried as little as the Hungarian team.

Most recently, the national goalkeeper was particularly annoyed by the corona regulations of the European Championship.

Gústavsson, 36, had contracted Corona at the EM, he was isolated for a few days, then he tested negative and was allowed to continue participating in the EM, actually.

But then another positive test followed, in which he had just fallen below the permissible CT value.

He had to go back into isolation.

»I have all three vaccinations, have been asymptomatic from day one and have already been in isolation.

Now the drama continues, it's getting bizarre," wrote the keeper.

Well, on Thursday evening, Gústavsson expressed himself almost diplomatically.

"I didn't think the isolation could get any worse." Behind that, a smiley that's throwing up.

The Icelandic handball players were the surprise of this EM.

Some top players, including the goalkeeper, had contracted Corona - but the Icelanders were unstoppable.

In the main round they celebrated a thumping victory against France, most recently a success against Montenegro and suddenly the door to the semi-finals was wide open.

Iceland is not a no-name in handball, Germany's national coach Alfred Gíslason was born here, and in 2008 the country won the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing.

“It's an incredibly popular sport in Iceland.

People take handball very seriously,” said coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson, describing the role of handball.

But the big successes were a few years ago.

For the big hit, for the first semifinals in twelve years, only one little thing was missing: The previously undefeated Danes, the current world champions, should have won their last main round game on Wednesday evening against France.

The French are also one of the great nations in handball, but they often had problems at this tournament, a few corona cases (including the national coach is affected) and lost to Iceland by eight goals.

It looked as if the handball machine Denmark should take this hurdle - also for Iceland.

But at 19.02, many Icelandic fans should get a bad feeling.

The squad list of the Danish team had become known and national coach Nikolaj Jacobsen had decided to rest some top players for the semi-finals: Top stars Mikkel Hansen, Mathias Gidsel, Magnus Saugstrup and substitute keeper Jannick Green were missing.

Hansen and Gidsel alone were responsible for 70 of the 185 Danish goals scored up to that point.

An exciting game developed in which Denmark was in the lead most of the time - until the end the strength ran out.

France won by one goal and are now in the semi-finals instead of Iceland.

The Icelandic handball surprise ended abruptly, goalkeeper Gústavsson followed the drama from isolation.

"Thanks for nothing, Denmark," read an Icelandic newspaper on Thursday morning.

Every form of reaction was found on social networks.

Some users called the Danish approach "shameful", others took it with humor: "You won't get a point from Iceland at the next Eurovision Song Contest." There was also understanding that the Danish coach Jacobsen gave his most important players a break before the semifinals .

The bankruptcy did not remain without consequences for Denmark.

In the semifinals on Friday, European champions Spain are waiting (8.30 p.m.).

France, who were suddenly group winners, will face Sweden (18.00 CET), which is not necessarily an easy task.

And, at least: Iceland is still playing for fifth place, the opponent is Norway (3:30 p.m.).

The European Championship began with a saying by Bob Hanning: "Whoever has the fewest corona cases becomes European champion." Iceland, plagued by Corona, had successfully fought against it for a long time: Ómar Ingi Magnússon from SC Magdeburg is the surprising top scorer of the tournament with 49 goals.

Sigvaldi Guðjónsson became the »lung« par excellence, he had already clocked 400 minutes and ran 33.4 kilometers – top figures at these finals.

But the great struggle has not been rewarded.

Now it could perhaps happen as Hanning prophesied.

Denmark has the fewest corona cases of the four participants in the semifinals.

The fact that the rested top players Hansen, Gidsel and Saugstrup will go into the last games of this European Championship with fresh legs also speaks for the Danish selection.

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2022-01-27

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.