Coaches come and go, and other moving news

The qualification for the Men’s EHF EURO 2020 in Sweden, Norway in Austria will continue from 10 to 14 April. The schedule includes the double-headers involving the teams from Pots 1/2 and from Pots 3/4 respectively.

Round 3 and 4 schedule

ehfTV.com live stream schedule

Since 32 teams started the qualifiers back in October and November 2018, a lot has happened: the World Championship 2019 was carried out in Germany and Denmark, some coaches have left, others were sacked or have announced to leave or join a team.

Here is a look at what happened since Rounds 1 and 2 took place last autumn:

• Congratulations, Denmark! Getting 10 wins from as many matches, including dominant performances against defending champions France in the semi-final and Norway in the final, the team from coach Nikolaj Jacobsen became world champions on home court. The world title completed their gold medal collection, after winning the EHF EURO in 2008 and 2012 and the Olympic Games in 2016.

• Danish top star Mikkel Hansen had even three more reasons to celebrate: his first child was born right before the start of the World Championship, he was awarded MVP of the worlds, and also became the IHF World Player of the Year for the third time, after 2011 and 2015.

• France not only lost the semi-final against Denmark, they also lost Cyril Dumoulin at the World Championship. The Nantes goalkeeper tore knee ligaments in the bronze medal match against Germany - which France won thanks to Nikola Karabatic’s buzzer-beater. Dumoulin is out for the rest of the season.

• The Scandinavian coaches’ carrousel will be turning in the next years: Danish mastermind Nikolaj Jacobsen will finish his job at German side Rhein-Neckar Löwen after this season to fully focus on the national team. His successor at Löwen is Kristjan Andresson, who also coaches the Swedish national team. But Andresson, who led Sweden to the EHF EURO 2018 Final against Spain, will quit the national team after the EHF EURO 2020 on home court. He will be replaced with former Norwegian international Glenn Solberg.

• Two more coaches who combined jobs at a national team and a club team have decided to focus on either side: Lino Cervar is only coaching the Croatian national team since January, while Branko Tamse took over his job at RK Zagreb. Also, Raul Gonzalez is focusing only on Paris Saint-Germain Handball after ‘El Commandante’ led North Macedonia to 15th place at the World Championship in January.

• Two other coaches have left their jobs recently. Patryk Rombel will lead Poland as interim-coach for the two matches against Germany. The former assistant coach of the national team and former coach of Ukrainian champions Motor Zaporozhye took over from Piotr Przybecki. In Austria, Patrekur Johannesson lost his job after the team missed the main round at the World Championship. He has been replaced with Ales Pajovic. The Slovenian will have his debut in the EHF EURO Cup, where Austria will face Spain twice this month.

• After their 24:23 defeat against Portugal in Round 2 of the EHF EURO 2020 Qualifiers, Lithuania head coach Arturos Juskenas stepped down. In the meantime, the federation has appointed Mindaugas Andriuska as his successor.

• Another big name of Slovenian and international handball has a new job: four-time EHF Champions League winner Uros Zorman is the new assistant coach of the Slovenian national team. Zorman is now assistant coach of two former World Players of the Year: Talant Dujshebaev at PGE Vive Kielce and Veselin Vujovic at the Slovenian national team.

• Also, there is another comeback from a player who has announced his retirement several times: Kim Andersson (36) is back in the Swedish squad for the double-header of the EHF EURO Cup against Norway.

Remember that Men’s EHF EURO 2020 tickets for all three host countries - Austria, Norway and Sweden - are available.