Denmark crash Swiss party, feisty Portugal snatch draw in Spain
Over 11,000 fans attended Switzerland’s first home match in the Men's EHF EURO Cup 2028 and saw a convincing defeat against EHF EURO champions Denmark, while Spain conceded the equalizer against Portugal with the last shot by Ricardo Brandão.
In the first five minutes you could already tell that this was a special game. We didn't get off to a good start and played far too slowly. Our goalkeeper kept us in the game during that phase. After that, we moved the ball more smoothly and played with more courage. We started the second half just as poorly, if not even worse. That was obviously a big setback. But we still managed to stay in the game. Today, we tested ourselves against the best team, and overall, I'm happy with our performance.
In the first half we played not as well as I hoped. We played not as fast as possible, missed a lot of chances. Second half we played with a lot more speed and were more effective with our chances. So, first half was with too less speed, and second half I'm really satisfied, especially with the first 15 minutes, where we played really good defence, had a really good goalkeeper in Kevin Møller. So, with that I'm very satisfied today.
I'm disappointed with the final result. We knew it was going to be a difficult match because Portugal have a very well-established squad, with clear patterns of play that allow them to play almost instinctively, whereas we are still developing our own game. Nevertheless, we can be relatively satisfied, as it has been a very demanding week, with matches against Denmark and Portugal, and the team has been competitive in both games. This has allowed us to assess where we currently stand and gauge our progress.
It was a very close match. Spain are a great opponent, and they made things very difficult for us. I am very proud of the team for knowing how to react at the end of the match, when it seemed like it was going their way. And then, Gustavo and his save... It gives us this point against a tough rival.
