13.01.2020, 19:12
News

Guaranteed advancement to the main round of EHF EURO 2020 Blaž Janc and Igor Karačić!

  • Magda Pluszewska
  • Article

  • Grzegorz Trzpil
  • Photo

Grzegorz Trzpil

  • FATIX
  • Translation

After two match days of EHF EURO 2020, Slovenia and Croatia having won all the matches and gaining four points each, which, with the current scores in groups F and A, guarantees their participation in the main round of the tournament. The Spaniards with Julen Aginagalde, Angel Fernandez and the Dujshebaev brothers can also be almost certain of their advancement, although in theory, the Netherlands still have a chance of stealing the advancement away from them with the extraordinary results of the past few matches.

 

POLAND: Arkadiusz Moryto, Mateusz Kornecki, Sławomir Szmal (assistant coach)

SLOVENIA: Blaž Janc, Uroš Zorman (assistant coach)

For Poland, the tournament began with two lost matches, first to Slovenia at 23:26 and then to Switzerland at 24:31. While in the first match the red-and-white team played really well filling everyone with optimism for the next two matches, the second one did not go so well. Patryk Rombel's team were not able to stop the phenomenal Andi Schmid, who scored 15 (!) goals. In the match against Slovenia, Arkadiusz Moryto, our winger, was the most effective player, scoring 8 goals. Whereas in the match against Switzerland he scored 3 goals. Mateusz Kornecki had 29% save success rate in the first match and 33% in the second one (but with Switzerland he went out on the court only for a few minutes, Adam Morawski handled the goalkeeping duties for most of the match).

On Tuesday, 14 January, at 8:30 p.m., Poland will play their last group phase match of EHF EURO 2020, facing off against Sweden. If Slovenia defeats Switzerland earlier on the same day, we will still have a mathematical chance to advance to the next round. Then we will have to win against Sweden with an eleven-goal lead. Such a victory will result in three teams — Poland, Sweden and Switzerland having two points each, and the red-and-white team will advance due to the total goal balance. However, if Slovenia, that at this point has the advancement to the main round guaranteed, loses to Switzerland, Poland will play their farewell match in the championship.

Ljubomir Vranješa's team has secured their advancement to the main round in two matches and will go to Malmö. In the first match, which they won against Poland 26:23, PGE VIVE’s winger, Blaž Janc, scored 4 goals and had 3 assists. Slovenia defeated Sweden 21:19 and Blaž scored 2 goals.

GROUP F (after two match days)

  1. SLOVENIA 4
  2. SWEDEN 2
  3. SWITZERLAND 2
  4. POLAND 0

Remaining matches (14.01)

6:15 p.m. Switzerland vs. Slovenia (ehftv.com)

8:30 p.m. Poland vs Sweden (TVP Sport)

CROATIA: Igor Karačić

BELARUS: Arciom Karalok, Uladzislau Kulesh

MONTENEGRO: Branko Vujović

Croatia can be sure of their advancement to the main round as well, as they won both of their first tournament matches against Montenegro (27:21) and Belarus (31:23). In the second one, Igor Karačić, PGE VIVE Kielce's playmaker, gave an incredible performance scoring 6 goals and was chosen MVP of the match.

Branko Vujović is coming back to court on Monday. The Montenegrin playmaker did not have much to show for thus far, in the first match against Croatia, which his team lost 21:27 and Branko played less than five minutes not scoring any goals, however he did have one assist. Branko has two serious competitors on his position, Vladan Lipovina and Stefan Čavor, both of whom play in the Bundesliga on a daily basis. For the second match of the EHF EURO, against Serbia, the Montenegrin coach substituted Branko for Miloš Bozović, but Branko returned to the court for their final group match, against Belarus.

On 13 January, at 6:15 p.m., Montenegro will face off against Belarus in their final match of the group phase. The stakes for both teams will be the advancement to the main round. So far both teams managed to beat Serbia and have two points each. Arciom Karalok, our pivot, is doing well in the Belarusian team. “Archie" scored 9 goals and had 2 assists in the match against Serbia, and 5 goals in the match against Croatia, which currently gives him fifth place in EHF EURO 2020 scorer classification. Slightly less prominent is PGE VIVE’s playmaker, Uladzislau Kulesh, who scored 7 goals and recorded 5 assists in two matches.

The first two teams of Group A will go to Vienna to play the main round matches.

GROUP A (after two match days)

  1. CROATIA 4
  2. BELARUS 2
  3. MONTENEGRO 2
  4. SERBIA 0

Remaining matches (13.01)

6:15 p.m. Montenegro vs. Belarus (ehftv.com)

8:30 p.m. Serbia vs. Croatia (ehftv.com)

GERMANY: Andreas Wolff

SPAIN: Julen Aginagalde, Alex Dujshebaev, Daniel Dujshebaev, Angel Fernandez

There they will face off against two of the best teams from Group C, among others, and everything seems to indicate that these will be Spain and Germany. Jordi Ribera's team gathered 4 points having won all of their matches, and Christian Prokop's team so far lost with Spain (26:33) and defeated the Netherlands (34:23), which gives them the position of vice-leader. On the third match day Spain will face off against the Netherlands and Germany will play against Latvia. Anything can still happen as the results of these matches can be quite surprising, but given the extremely advantageous total goal balance of the Spaniards (+18), even a possible defeat against the Netherlands, and the Germans’ victory over Latvia, should guarantee the advancement of both teams — Spain and Germany.

So far, the title's defenders are doing great, largely thanks to the PGE VIVE Kielce players, who scored a total of 11 in both matches, or 1/3 of the total goals (against Latvia 33:22; Aginagalde — 2, A. Dujshebaev — 3, D. Dujshebaev — 1, Fernandez — 5; against Germany 33:26; Aginagalde — 1, A. Dujshebaev — 7, D. Dujshebaev — 1, Fernandez — 2). The tournament did begin very well for the German team, but they were no match against Spain. Andreas Wolff gave a great performance in the match against the Netherlands (39%), but Jordi Ribera's team both with Wolff on the court and after him being substituted for Johannes Bitter did as they pleased. Andi only had a 6% save success rate in the match against Spain (he defended one shot playing 23 minutes), while Bitter had a little more — 26%. In contrast, Gonzalo Perez de Vargas was hailed the MVP of the match, managing to defend 12 shots of the German team.

GROUP C (after two match days)

  1. SPAIN 4
  2. GERMANY 2
  3. LATVIA 2
  4. THE NETHERLANDS 0

Remaining matches (13.01)

6:15 p.m. Latvia vs. Germany (ehftv.com)

8:30 p.m. The Netherlands vs. Spain (ehftv.com)

OTHER GROUPS

The biggest sensation of this tournament is the fact that only two matches were enough for the mighty French team to be knocked-out. The French have already lost to Portugal 25:28 and to Norway 26:28 in their Group D matches, which, with two wins by Norway and Portugal, was a lethal blow to their hopes for advancement to the main round.

In Group E, the tournaments began for the Danish team with a 30:31 defeat against Iceland. This is the only group that is a day behind the other groups and has only played a single day of matches so far. Denmark still has matches against Hungary and Russia ahead of them, and for the time being is in third place with zero points.

Group B is led by the hosts — Austria with four points. Right behind them with two points are the Czech and the Macedonian teams, while Ukraine remains with zero points for now.

The matches of the Polish national team are broadcast on TVP Sport, while all others can be watched on ehftv.com.

 

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This article was translated by FATIX. If you are looking for professional translation services, check them up at www.fatix.eu.