2008 European Men's Handball Championship

2008 EHF European Men's Handball Championship

Håndball-EM 2008. (Norwegian)
Tournament details
Host country	Norway
Dates	17–27 January
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	5 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Denmark (1st title)
Runner-up	Croatia
Third place	France
Fourth place	Germany
Tournament statistics
Matches played	47
Goals scored	2633 (56.02 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ivano Balić (CRO) (44 goals) Nikola Karabatić (FRA) Lars Christiansen (DEN)
Best player	Nikola Karabatić (FRA)

The 2008 EHF European Men's Handball Championship (8th tournament) was held in Norway from 17–27 January, in the cities of Bergen, Drammen, Lillehammer, Stavanger and Trondheim. Denmark won the tournament with Croatia second and France third.

Qualification round

Main article: 2008 European Men's Handball Championship - Qualification Round

Qualification matches took place in 2007. According to the EHF rules, the host (Norway) and the top six nations from the 2006 European Championship (France, Croatia, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Russia) were automatically qualified. The other nine places were determined after the play-off matches, held in June; nine teams were seeded, after qualifying for the 2006 Championship, while their opponents qualified through the preliminary group stages.

Venues

City	Stadium	Capacity
Drammen	Drammenshallen	4,000
Stavanger	Stavanger Idrettshall	7,000
Bergen	Haukelandshallen	4,000
Trondheim	Trondheim Spektrum	4,000
Lillehammer	Håkons Hall	10,500

Preliminary round

	Team advanced to the Main Round
	Team is eliminated from the tournament

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Group A (Stavanger)

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GDIF	Points
Croatia	3	3	0	0	91	77	+14	6
Poland	3	2	0	1	93	89	+4	4
Slovenia	3	1	0	2	85	94	−9	2
Czech Republic	3	0	0	3	88	97	−9	0

January 17, 2008
Slovenia	34 – 32	Czech Republic	18:15
Croatia	32 – 27	Poland	20:15
January 18, 2008
Czech Republic	26 – 30	Croatia	18:15
Poland	33 – 27	Slovenia	20:15
January 20, 2008
Poland	33 – 30	Czech Republic	15:15
Croatia	29 – 24	Slovenia	17:15

Group B (Drammen)

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GDIF	Points
Norway	3	3	0	0	86	69	+17	6
Denmark	3	2	0	1	89	79	+10	4
Montenegro	3	0	1	2	71	84	−13	1
Russia	3	0	1	2	74	88	−14	1

January 17, 2008
Russia	25–25	Montenegro	17:00
Denmark	26 – 27	Norway	19:15
January 18, 2008
Norway	32 – 21	Russia	18:15
Montenegro	24 – 32	Denmark	20:15
January 20, 2008
Denmark	31 – 28	Russia	17:15
Norway	27 – 22	Montenegro	19:15

Group C (Bergen)

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GDIF	Points
Hungary	3	2	0	1	90	82	+8	4
Spain	3	2	0	1	94	88	+6	4
Germany	3	2	0	1	84	80	+4	4
Belarus	3	0	0	3	83	101	−18	0

January 17, 2008
Germany	34 – 26	Belarus	17:15
Spain	28 – 35	Hungary	19:15
January 19, 2008
Hungary	24 – 28	Germany	18:15
Belarus	31 – 36	Spain	20:15
January 20, 2008
Spain	30 – 22	Germany	16:30
Hungary	31 – 26	Belarus	18:30

Group D (Trondheim)

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GDIF	Points
France	3	3	0	0	90	76	+14	6
Sweden	3	2	0	1	89	72	+17	4
Iceland	3	1	0	2	68	76	−8	2
Slovakia	3	0	0	3	78	101	−23	0

January 17, 2008
France	32 – 31	Slovakia	18:15
Iceland	19 – 24	Sweden	20:15
January 19, 2008
Slovakia	22 – 28	Iceland	18:15
Sweden	24 – 28	France	20:15
January 20, 2008
Slovakia	25 – 41	Sweden	16:15
France	30 – 21	Iceland	18:15

Main Round

	Team advanced to the Semifinals
	Team will compete for the 5th/6th place
	Team is eliminated from the tournament

Group I (Stavanger)

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GDIF	Points
Denmark	5	4	0	1	152	120	+32	8
Croatia	5	3	1	1	138	130	+8	7
Norway	5	2	2	1	130	128	+2	6
Poland	5	2	1	2	149	142	+7	5
Slovenia	5	2	0	3	138	148	−10	4
Montenegro	5	0	0	5	124	163	−39	0

January 22, 2008
Slovenia	31 – 29	Montenegro	16:15
Croatia	20 – 30	Denmark	18:15
Poland	24–24	Norway	20:15
January 23, 2008
Croatia	34 – 26	Montenegro	16:15
Poland	26 – 36	Denmark	18:15
Slovenia	33 – 29	Norway	20:15
January 24, 2008
Poland	39 – 23	Montenegro	16:15
Slovenia	23 – 28	Denmark	18:15
Croatia	23–23	Norway	20:15

Group II (Trondheim)

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GDIF	Points
France	5	4	0	1	140	126	+14	8
Germany	5	3	0	2	139	136	+3	6
Sweden	5	2	1	2	131	131	0	5
Hungary	5	2	1	2	145	147	−2	5
Spain	5	2	0	3	144	138	+6	4
Iceland	5	1	0	4	129	150	−21	2

January 22, 2008
Germany	35 – 27	Iceland	16:20
Spain	27 – 28	France	18:30
Hungary	27–27	Sweden	20:30
January 23, 2008
Spain	26 – 27	Sweden	16:15
Germany	23 – 26	France	18:15
Hungary	28 – 36	Iceland	20:15
January 24, 2008
Spain	33 – 26	Iceland	15:20
Hungary	31 – 28	France	17:20
Germany	31 – 29	Sweden	19:20

Final round

	Semifinal				Final
	26 January – 15:30 (Lillehammer)
	Croatia	24
	France	23
					27 January – 16:00 (Lillehammer)
					Denmark	24
					Croatia	20
					Bronze Match
	26 January – 18:00 (Lillehammer)			27 January – 13:30 (Lillehammer)
	Denmark	26		Germany	26
	Germany	25			France	36

5th/6th Placement Match

26 January 13:00	Norway	34–36 (ET)	Sweden	Håkons Hall, Lillehammer Attendance: 5,840 Referees: Lemme, Ullrich (GER)
	Strand 10	(13–15)	Boquist, Källmann 7
	3× 3×	Report	4× 3×
	FT: 26–26 ET: 30–30, 34–36

Semifinals

26 January 15:30	Croatia	24–23	France	Håkons Hall, Lillehammer Attendance: 6,012 Referees: Baum, Góralczyk (POL)
	Metličić 6	(11–9)	Abalo, Narcisse 7
	1× 4×	Report	2× 4×

---

26 January 18:00	Denmark	26–25	Germany	Håkons Hall, Lillehammer Attendance: 6,012 Referees: Poladenko, Chernega (RUS)
	Christiansen 6	(10–13)	Kehrmann 6
	2× 3×	Report	4× 3×

Bronze Match

27 January 13:30	Germany	26–36	France	Håkons Hall, Lillehammer Attendance: 7,940 Referees: Vakula, Liudovyk (UKR)
	Jansen 7	(9–18)	Girault 8
	4× 3×	Report	3× 3×

Final

27 January 17:30	Denmark	24–20	Croatia	Håkons Hall, Lillehammer Attendance: 9,052 Referees: Breto, Huelin (ESP)
	Boesen, Christiansen 7	(13–10)	Metličić 5
	5× 2×	Report	6× 4× 1×

Ranking and Statistics

Final ranking

	Denmark
	Croatia
	France
4	Germany
5	Sweden
6	Norway
7	Poland
8	Hungary
9	Spain
10	Slovenia
11	Iceland
12	Montenegro
13	Czech Republic
14	Russia
15	Belarus
16	Slovakia

2008 Men's European Champions Denmark First Title Team Roster Kasper Hvidt, Mikkel Holm Aagaard, Lasse Boesen, Lars T. Jørgensen, Jesper Jensen, Lars Rasmussen, Lars Christiansen, Lars Møller Madsen, Peter Henriksen, Bo Spellerberg, Michael V. Knudsen, Jesper Nøddesbo, Lars Krogh Jeppesen, Kasper Søndergaard, Joachim Boldsen, Hans Lindberg and Kasper Nielsen. Head Coach: Ulrik Wilbek.

All-Star Team

• Goalkeeper: Kasper Hvidt (DEN)
• Left wing: Lars Christiansen (DEN)
• Left back: Daniel Narcisse (FRA)
• Pivot: Frank Løke (NOR)
• Centre back: Ivano Balić (CRO)
• Right back: Kim Andersson (SWE)
• Right wing: Florian Kehrmann (GER)

Other awards

• Most Valuable Player: Nikola Karabatić (FRA)
• Best Defence Player: Igor Vori (CRO)
• Top Goalscorer: 44 goals
  Lars Christiansen (DEN)
  Ivano Balić (CRO)
  Nikola Karabatić (FRA)