Cyprus out to show what a cool sport handball is

The fact that the EHF EURO 2020 will be played with 24 teams for the first time has given Europe’s emerging handball nations new hope to qualify for the final tournament.

One of the nations hoping for the jackpot is Cyprus, the second nation featuring in eurohandball.com’s “The road to 2020” series.

“The new rule increases the chance for smaller countries to qualify for the big event,” says Cyprus coach Andras Andreou. “Cyprus have a small chance to qualify, but we realise that it will still be difficult. We will have to be better than at least one team at a higher level than ourselves.”

While for some teams the first qualification phase starts at the beginning of November, Cyprus will play a tournament against Faroe Islands and Greece from 13 to 15 January.

The first team straight away reaches the main qualification phase. The teams ranked second and third will get a second chance at the European Trophy played in June next year.

“Just reaching the next stage of the qualification would mean a lot to us. It would be the first time our national team qualifies from any group stage.

“During the past few years, we are trying to build a better and more competitive team, but to be honest, it is a difficult task,” says Andreou.

“However, our main goal remains to qualify for the next phase, and our players are highly motivated to accomplish this goal.”

Challenging circumstances

And there is no doubt that Cyprus are preparing thoroughly for the qualification matches in January.

“We started in the middle of August with a special preparation programme in the gym. During the first week of November, we will gather the team for some further training sessions and hopefully manage to arrange some friendly matches as well.

“After that, the gym programme will continue until 11 December when we meet for the final preparations, and at the beginning of January we will try to play some friendlies to get in the best shape possible,” explains the coach.

He can gather his players that often because the national team of Cyprus recruits the majority of its players from the two top clubs on the island.

“Most of our players play for the best two teams in Cyprus, European University Cyprus and A.S.S.Spes.”

Looking ahead to the qualification tournament, Andreou considers playing on the Faroe Islands challenging.

“We would have preferred to play at home, or at least in Greece, but we were not lucky enough at the draw. The Faroe Islands will have an advantage playing at home, but on the other hand, we are used to playing away, and in fact we have travelled quite a lot in the last few years.

“It is going to be a long and difficult trip to the Faroe Islands, but we have to deal with it,” he says.

“We know that Greece as well as the Faroe Islands have good and competitive teams. But, I think we are on the same level as they are.”

Planning for the future

Taken the qualification tournament aside, Andreou and the Cyprus Handball Federation are looking even further ahead.

“Our federation has prepared a three-year plan aiming to promote the sport among the young people.

“The goal is to bring more kids to the handball world and let them know how cool a sport handball actually is. The longer term plan is to prepare them to be part of our future national teams,” says the coach.