Summary: Italy, Israel and Croatia take away wins to open round 2
After a clean sweep of home wins in the Men's EHF EURO 2028 Qualifiers mid-week, round 2 got underway on Saturday with three matches. Croatia, Israel and Italy went away victorious, beating hosts Finland, Slovenia and Belgium respectively.
The Israelis didn't surprise us with anything, the problem was with us. We simply weren't ourselves, at least I can say that for my own very poor performance. After this defeat, we need to look in the mirror, clear certain things up, and reset.
It was a really tough match for us, especially at the beginning, when we struggled to find our rhythm and control the game. Our goalkeepers kept us in the match throughout, which was extremely important. In the second half, however, we were outstanding. We took control of the game, managed our opportunities well and played excellent defence. We didn’t allow them to score from fast breaks, which was a key factor in our performance.
15:45
We start off with Finland vs Croatia. Finland have never qualified for a final tournament, and face an uphill battle today against Croatia. In six previous meetings Croatia have won each time, and they are coming off a decisive 18-goal win against Lithuania in round 1. However, Finland gave the Netherlands a bit of a scare early on in their match on Thursday, with Miska Henriksson scoring 11 times, so will also have some confidence in this home game.
Fun fact: both coaches are EHF EURO champions: Ola Lindgren (Finland) as a player for Sweden, Dagur Sigurdsson (Croatia) as the coach of Germany.
15:30
Welcome to round 2 of the Men's EHF EURO 2028 Qualifiers! It's a light day today, with just threee matches — starting at 16:00 CET with Finland vs Croatia — but tomorrow is packed, with 13 Qualifiers plus two EHF EURO Cup games.
To start today's coverage, check out the round preview.
