EHF EURO participants prepare for final tournament

The past week was marked as 'men's national team week' in the handball calendar, seven days during which there were no Men's European Cup competitions scheduled allowing the national teams to get in shape for the EHF EURO 2014 in Denmark.

All 16 participants made use of this opportunity and here is a brief overview on how they performed.

EHF EURO hosts and defending champions, Denmark, won the first edition of the Men's Golden League which was played in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.

The tournament saw four EHF EURO participants taking to the court. Denmark won their matches against 2012 Olympic champions, France, 33:29 and beat EHF EURO 2012 bronze medallists, Croatia, 29:28.

Denmark took the overall victory despite losing the last match 26:32 against Norway. However, it was the only win for Norway in this tournament as they lost 26:28 to Croatia and 29:32 against France.

The match France against Croatia ended 29:24.

Czech Republic and EHF EURO 2012 silver medallists, Serbia, faced each other in a double-header. The first match on Friday, 1 November, ended in a 29-all draw.

In the second match on Saturday Czech Republic took a 30:25 victory.

The double-header between Austria and Iceland ended with one win each for both teams. Iceland won the first match on Friday 29:28, but Austria successfully took revenge and beat their opponents 33:32 in the re-match on Saturday.

FYR Macedonia lost their first test match, an encounter that was played over three times 20 minutes, against Montenegro 28:29. The second test was played in regular format and FYR Macedonia won 26:21 on 2 November.

Hungary and world champions, Spain, which will face each other in Group B at the final tournament in January, chose a similar format for their double-header on 1 and 2 November.

Spain won both matches, the first one over the three times 20 minutes 30:26, the second one 29:24.

Poland and Sweden played the Super Cup in Germany. Poland won their first match against Egypt 24:21 and also beat Sweden 29:28. They then lost the tournament's final 23:24 against Germany.

Sweden secured third rank following the loss to Poland, a 24:29 defeat at the hands of Germany and a 40:29 victory against Egypt.

Russia and Belarus played a four-nation tournament in Tunisia. Russia came second after they beat Brazil 26:25 and Belarus 31:27, but lost against Tunisia 24:28.

Belarus only gained one point overall following a 30:30-draw against Brazil and losses to Russia (27:31) and Tunisia (25:26).