Iceland's miraculous escape, three teams remain perfect

In group G of the main round Spain beat Austria in a one-way street match to maintain their perfect record in the tournament, while Portugal and Iceland shared the spoils in truly dramatic fashion, with three goals and an unconverted penalty shot in the last minute alone.

Scandinavian derby in group H of the main round went to Norway who also, like Spain, won their group in the preliminary round. Denmark, who have won this tournament a record-breaking four times, finished their clash with Germany strongly and secured another victory.

There was also action in the intermediate and elimination rounds. France took an expected win, the hosts Slovenia enjoyed a great second half en route to victory against Serbia, Hungary took the better of their geographical neighbours Croatia, whereas four teams are still without a point to their name (Montenegro, Greece, Israel, Ukraine).

• Spain's flamboyant attacking prowess proved too much for Austria to handle as they secured a convincing victory 37:26, with Victor Romero, Ian Barrufet and Xavier Gonzalez scoring 20 goals combined. Austria made six technical faults in the first five minutes (18 in total) to help Spain establish a 5:0 lead, which set the tone for the rest of the match
• Thanks to Steinsson's penalty shot save in the final play of the match Iceland took a valuable point against Portugal (33:33), having trailed the entire second half, at one point by as many as six goals
• Powered by Patrick Anderson's 11 goals, Norway celebrated a win against Sweden (37:34) in the highly anticipated Scandinavian derby, ensuring their winning record lives on another day
• Denmark and Germany met in the clash between two most successful teams in the competition's history. The Danes prevailed (33:28) after a crucial 4:0 run deep into the second half. Frederik Höler's 17 saves weren't enough for the Germans
• First main round day brought as many as 261 goals in total, or 65,2 per match
• In the intermediate round France beat Romania (30:25) and in the same group North Macedonia remained unbeaten in the tournament by securing both points against Poland (28:26); In the other group Slovenia scored 20 goals in the second half to take victory versus Serbia (34:26), while Hungary delivered a quality performance in beating Croatia
• Óli Mittún solidified his top spot on the scoring list with another 10 goals, bringing his tally up to 42, as Faroe Islands beat Israel in the elimination round; Italy inflicted yet another defeat on Montenegro, while Czechia and Switzerland recorded their first wins of the tournament

Iceland's improbable comeback marks main round's opening day

Iceland qualified for the main round by taking one of only two second-place spots in the preliminary round and today they narrowly escaped a certain defeat after a suspenseful final few minutes.

Portugal seemed in full control as they took a 24:18 lead in the early stages of the second half. With six minutes left, they were still in the driving seat (31:27), but the Icelanders fought admirably, even with a two-goal deficit in the last minute (33:31).

Erlingsson's goal brought them hope and then Einarsson leveled the match with six seconds remaining. There was still time for Portugal to grab both points though, but Isak Steinsson saved Correia Ferreira's penalty shot after the time had already run out. Icelanders flocked to congratulate their hero as they continued celebrating their hard-earned draw with their noisy fans in the stands of Dvorana Zlatorog.

As one would expect, Norway and Sweden provided a highly physical and intense encounter between group winners in the preliminary round. Sweden recovered from a six-goal deficit to level the score at the break (15:15), but Patrick Anderson above all made sure Norway run away with both points. 

Halfway through the second period Norway grabbed a six-goal lead once more, only this time they didn't let it slip away. Anderson finished the match with 11 goals from 14 attempts. The Norwegians have never won a medal at this competition, but this generation looks like a serious contender to reach the semi-finals.

Main photo credit: Slavko Kolar / Rokometna zveza Slovenije