The handball players of Portugal created a surprise in the match of the 3rd round of Group B of the European Championship by defeating the current Olympic winners, world champions and European runners-up Danes in Herning with 31-29.
After they have achieved two convincing ones wins, Danes have unexpectedly lost from Portugal with 29-31, they enter the second round without points, while the Portuguese transfer two points. This is the first time that the Portuguese national team defeated the current world and Olympic champions, so it is not surprising that the Portuguese celebrated as if they had won the title.
They led Portugal to a great victory Francisco Costa and Martim Costa with nine goals each, while on the other side the most effective were Mathias Gidsel with eight and Simon Pytlick with six goals.
In the first meeting from this group North Macedonia won Romania are 24-23. However, in order to qualify for the second round, the Macedonians needed Denmark’s victory against Portugal with a difference of 18 goals. The winning goal was scored by Nenad Kosteski. It was his fourth goal in the game, and Filip Kuzmanovski was the most effective in the Macedonian ranks with nine goals. Ionut Nistor scored eight goals for Romania, who finished the group with three defeats.
Portugal won the first place with five points, Denmark has four, the Macedonians three, and the Romanians remained at “zero”.
Slovenia defeated in the match from group D Faroe Islands with 30-27 winning first place in the group with six points. Domen Makuc was great with 10 goals, while Miljan Vujović had the same number of saves. On the opposite side, Elias a Skipagotu scored nine goals.
In the first meeting from this group Switzerland won Montenegro with 43-26. Slovenia and Hungary go further, and Slovenia transfers two points.
After recording two victories each in the first two rounds, Hungary and Iceland in a mutual meeting, they decided on the winner of the group and who will transfer all the points. Iceland celebrated with 24-23.
Iceland was led by Gisli Kristjansson with seven goals, as many as Bence Imre scored on the Hungarian side.
Results of the 3rd round of the European Championship:
GROUP B
North Macedonia – Romania 24-23 (13-9)
Denmark – Portugal 29-31 (11-12)
GROUP D
Montenegro – Switzerland 26-43 (16-22)
Slovenia – Faroe Islands 30-27 (16-15)
GROUP F
Poland – Italy 28-29 (13-15)
Hungary – Iceland 23-24 (14-14)
(Hina | Photo: Eva Manhart / Kolektiff)
