24 teams to eight: M18 EHF EURO main round awaits

Serbia, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Spain and Iceland all reached the main round as winners of group A through to group F, respectively, having taken three wins in as many games in the opening stage. Norway and Hungary qualified for the main round as the best second-ranked sides, with Norway placing second in group C behind Denmark and Hungary in second behind Sweden in group D.

The preliminary round began on Wednesday August 7 and concluded on Saturday, while the main round will throw off on Monday. The semi-finals will take place on Friday August 16, when the final placement games for other rankings also begin, and the finals will be played on Sunday August 18. On Monday August 12, the M18 EHF Championships begin in Kosovo and Slovakia.

The standout points of the M18 EHF EURO 2024 so far:

• the semi-finalists of the last edition of the M18 EHF EURO — Spain, Sweden, Germany and Hungary — have all made it through again with their new generations
• Serbia, Germany, Denmark and Hungary will play in one of the main round groups, while Sweden, Spain, Iceland and Norway make up the other. The two top-ranked sides in each group will qualify for the semi-finals
• Spain scored the most goals of the preliminary round, with 112, while Denmark scored 104 and allowed 67 goals against them, ranking second in the competition in both those statistics
• Germany had the lowest number of goals recorded against them, with 63, underlining a strong defensive performance from the side
• only a matter of days after their senior side were knocked out in a shock early exit at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, losing to Germany in an overtime quarter-final, France were among the teams to miss out on progression to the main round and will instead contest the intermediate round
• the top scorer of the M18 EHF EURO 2024 so far is Israel’s Asaf Sharon, with 45 goals, sitting just ahead of Austria’s Lukas Fritsch on 44 and Maksym Pavlovskyi on 43
• the top scorer among the main round contenders is Serbia’s Djordje Drasko, on 28

Will the era of Spain continue?

Spain were the victors at the recent M20 EHF EURO 2024 and their U18 side will now aim to replicate the achievement of defending the trophy and extend the period of Spanish dominance in the European men’s Youth Age Category events.

On the world stage, Spain — with the generation that won the M20 EHF EURO 2024 title — were champions of the 2023 Youth (U19) World Championship. The one blip in the recent run of success at international championships for Spain YAC teams is the exit in the main round at the 2023 Junior (U21) World Championship.

On Sunday morning, the Spain men’s side became back-to-back Olympic bronze medallists, as they defeated Slovenia to secure the last piece of silverware up for grabs at Paris 2024. Although they have been present in the medal rounds in every major championship played since 2018, and prior to that featured in the EHF EURO semi-finals before re-joining the fray as regular medal contenders at World Championships and Olympic Games, it has been some years since Spain topped a podium. The last title was the EHF EURO 2020 trophy.

But the results so far at the summer’s YAC events show that the future of Spanish men’s handball is extremely bright and the hope for more titles on the senior stage need not fade.

Photos: Mario Matkovic & Vuk Raicevic