It is win or die for Luxembourg

A busy few days lie ahead of the Luxembourgish men's national handball team as they play Cyprus on Wednesday, 3 April, and Finland on Saturday en route to the qualification for the EHF EURO 2016 in Poland.

The team has to win both matches if they want to keep their hopes alive to advance to the next round which only the group winner reaches. 

Luxembourg lost their first match in this qualification phase against Finland 21:28.

National coach Adrian Stot selected a lot of experienced players for the two encounters, such as Alain Poeckes and Dan Ley (HB Dudelange), Frank Link (Chev Diekirch), Christian Bock and Martin Muller (Handball Esch) as well as Chris Auger and Eric Schroeder (Handball Kärjeng).

Line player Eric Schroeder knows that qualifying for the next round will be hard.

"We have to win both matches. Losing against Cyprus would be a disappointment and for the match against Finland, we have to be much more concentrated than last time."

The team has been staying at national sport and culture centre in Coque to prepare for both matches.

Many of the players have already been enjoying long stints in the national team and Schroeder and Stot agree that the atmosphere in the group is great.

“Since the first match there has been a good atmosphere in the group which is very positive. (Now) we have the chance to play both games at home, in front of our fans, and we want them to be proud of their national team,“ explains head coach Stot.

The national federation hopes that a lot of fans will support the team on both days, especially since the national mini handball day will take place on Saturday and all participants get a free entry to the game.

"Right now, Finland is ahead of us in the group. In June 2012 (in the first qualification phase for EHF EURO 2014 when Luxembourg won 25:23), we showed that we can beat them but, in order to keep dreaming about a qualification, we have to beat Cyprus.

"We want to make a good match against Cyprus on Wednesday. A good resultant may give us more confidence and motivation for the second match against Finland," says Stot.