MUNICH - Comments from Denmark head coach Nikolaj Jacobsen (DEN), right back Mathias Gidsel (DEN), centre back Rasmus Lauge (DEN); Portugal head coach Paulo Pereira (POR), centre back Martim Costa (POR) and right back Joaquim Nazaré (POR); Czechia head coach Xavier Sabate (ESP), goalkeeper Tomas Mrkva (CZE) and centre back Lukáš Morkovský (CZE); and Greece head coach Georgios Zaravinas (GRE), goalkeeper Petros Boukovinas (GRE) and left wing Christos Kederis (GRE) after Czechia beat Greece 29:20 and Denmark beat Portugal 37:27 in preliminary round group F at the Olympiahalle München on Monday.

DENMARK vs PORTUGAL

Nikolaj Jacobsen (DEN) – head coach (DEN)

On the match:
“I think we played a very good game today. First half we missed three chances and one penalty at the end of the first half. I was not satisfied with that. So we went with two goals and had some big problems in defence especially in the middle.

"Portugal also played very well and I'm a big fan of Portuguese handball. They are playing some great handball. Second half we went over a little bit to not be so aggressive. We want to make some more blocks and help Niklas in goal. That was one of the big reasons that we won with this Martim [Costa] today. We had a really good goalkeeper performance in the second half.”

On the last 25 minutes:
“I also think we played - when we took the first two, three, four minutes away - I think we played almost perfect handball the last 25 minutes of the second half. We also know when we play on this level we are difficult to beat.”

Mathias Gidsel (DEN) – right back

On Denmark showing their quality against Portugal:
“The real Denmark hadn’t showed up yet at this European championship, but today in this group final against Portugal we took two steps up.”

On Portugal coming back to within two goals at the end of the first half:
“Portugal are an amazing team and obviously we also had a period in the first half where we started missing too many chances. But for us was the most important thing this ball flow. We don’t get so many free throws today, so many tackles, we managed to get the ball flowing. And then we know we are really hard to stop.”

On what Denmark take with to the main round from this game:
“I am really proud about the transition from the first two games to today. The first two games haven’t been the real Denmark, and now the real Denmark have stepped in. Now we are looking forward to the main round. Hopefully we can take one more step up. We just saw the results from the other groups, how close the European championship is, we have to find one more level.”

Rasmus Lauge (DEN) – centre back

On the improved performance by Denmark:
“It was a performance, especially in the second half, what we were longing for, and what we needed to show – show the audience, but most of all show ourselves that we could change the way we played from the first two games into our style again, where we are letting the ball go again, letting the ball do the job, and then finishing off with our speedsters on the edges and getting the ball more out to the wingers. So, more or less a most-needed performance.”

On Denmark stepping it up after Portugal came back to 17:15 at the break:
“Our attack kept on playing on a high level, we kept the ball going and created chances by being patient. The most important thing was that our defence stepped up a lot. In the first half, Portugal created too many chances on their best abilities in the middle of our defence.

"We then tried to make it more tight, more compact, and to help Niklas [Landin] with the blocks instead of going for the tackles. The defence created the spark in the second half and even though we had opportunities to go from five to eight goals, but then the last 10 minutes we were finishing it off.”

On how important it is psychologically to go into the main round with such a performance:
“Very important. Nothing less, nothing more.”

Paulo Pereira (POR) – head coach (POR)

On the loss:
“I'm also a lover, a handball lover of Denmark. Today I liked the first half. Second half I didn't like several things we played.

"For me, this team of Denmark is the best team ever maybe for me. They have clear ideas and do always the same more or less. Everybody knows what they do but it´s difficult to stop these players. So, I'm very happy with this first half. Second half no. Also, I know we have a lot of excuses if you want to call like that.”

Martim Costa (POR) – centre back

On the 37:27 defeat against Denmark:
“A really difficult game. In the first half we played very good, we were losing by only two and we were doing an amazing job. But in the second part, Denmark were better in defence and in running. It’s a normal result for the second half. I think we have to stick with the first half and bring that to the main round and I think we can do really good things there.”

On whether Portugal became worse, or Denmark became better in the second half:
“A little bit of both. The quality of our shots was not so good, [Niklas] Landin was doing amazing saves but my shots could be better. Just not enough power. There is still a lot to play and we are ready for that.”

Joaquim Nazaré (POR) – right back

On the defeat against Denmark:
“The game was not good for us. We played good in the first half, but second half we were not consistent anymore. Denmark played better in the second half, but we played so badly in defence. If we play seven-against-six in defence, we don’t change fast enough.”

CZECHIA vs GREECE

Xavier Sabate (ESP) – head coach, Czechia

On the match:
“We played a very complete match, especially in defence. When the goalkeeper [Tomas Mrkva] is like this, when the defence is like this you can run more. You can get easy goals in the fast break and I think we could break a little bit the match and to keep the distance.

On his team:
“I’m very proud of the work of all my players, not only because of this tournament. It was not good enough to go to the next stage. But we had big motivation to make something huge; I’m sure that in the future this team is growing and growing.”

Tomas Mrkva (CZE) – goalkeeper

On beating Greece:
“We definitely wanted to win this game because we were not consistent enough in the previous games to be successful. We did very well today, we reached our level for 50, 55 minutes, and that was the first key to the victory. The second key was that we played very well in defence and that I could save a few shots.”

On his 18 saves and becoming Grundfos Player of the Match:
“That’s nice to end the EURO with, but I had rather had 10 saves today and 18 against Portugal. The award is nice but overall I am just sad that we didn't advance to the main round.”

On the feeling he takes home after the EHF EURO:
“We have seen in the last game that we can play very good handball. But we have also seen that if we cannot reach our best level in parts of the game, we have a big problem. We need to keep working very hard on ourselves.”

Lukáš Morkovský (CZE) – centre back

On what decided the match against Greece:
“I think our defence was great today. Our fast breaks worked well. And [goalkeeper] Tomas Mrkva was amazing: 50 per cent saves is great.”

Georgios Zaravinas (GRE) – head coach, Greece

On the defeat:
“It is clear that they are much much better than us. For us it was one difficult game.

“We must improve a lot of things in the defence to try to make a better performance in attack. Maybe you must have some more saves from the goalkeeper, but the clear problem was in our attack.”

On the tournament as a whole:
“We are happy we participate after many many years in this tournament. It is clear we want to continue to be better to play to another level, we must develop more, we must try to participate again and be in this kind of game against these teams.”

Petros Boukovinas (GRE) – goalkeeper

On the defeat against Czechia:
“We had a bad offensive game, I think. We lost it in the first half, easy mistakes, and we received easy goals. If you are not close in the score, it’s very hard to come back. But I think our defence functioned very good. The easy mistakes and the easy goals cost us the game.”

On what Greece take with them from their EHF EURO:
“We must continue to work, with our heads up. We look forward to being again in a big competition. This was only our first step.”

Christos Kederis (GRE) – left wing

On losing Greece’s last match of EHF EURO 2024:
“It was not the big game we wanted to have at the end of our tournament. It was very difficult. Czechia is a big country, many years in European handball, now with a Spanish coach, difficult to beat them. We were not focused on big phases of the game, we didn’t do what we saw on video.”

On why the difference with Czechia was bigger than many expected:
“Maybe it’s not in our experience, maybe some players want to give something more. Some guys, they want to go to a big club in Europe, go to a better, like me as well.”

On how he would describe his first EHF EURO:
“We gave everything. We fought in the matches, we fought in the training, we want to become better.”