2006 European Men's Handball Championship

The 2006 European men's handball championship takes place in January and February 2006 in Switzerland. The 7th European Men's Handball Championship takes place in the cities Basel, Berne, Lucerne, St Gallen and Zürich.

Preliminary Group Stage

Group A

This group will be played in the Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen (capacity: 4,500). Poland qualified first, winning the first match and then drawing the second against Switzerland despite an equaliser with 15 seconds to go from Pascal Jenny, and two hours later they were joined by Slovenia, who came back from a two-goal deficit in the last ten minutes to beat Ukraine by 33–31. Switzerland and Ukraine thus played off for the last place in the main round, and the Swiss got behind from the start, trailing by 21–14 at half time. Ten minutes into the second half, Ukraine were 28–16 up, before allowing Switzerland somewhat back into it near the end. They still won 37–30, however, qualifying for the second round with zero points. Slovenia beat Poland 33–29 to carry forward four points, while Poland got two.

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Slovenia	6	3	3	0	0	95	85	+10
Poland	3	3	1	1	1	93	88	+5
Ukraine	2	3	1	0	2	92	86	–4
Switzerland	1	3	0	1	2	86	97	–11


January 26, 2006
Poland Karol Bielecki 8 Patryk Kuchczynski 5	33–24	Ukraine Mykola Stetsyura 7 Sergiy Shel'menko 7	17:30
Slovenia Siarhei Rutenka 7 (2 pen) Zoran Jovičič 5 (3 pen) Renato Vugrinec 5	29–25	Switzerland Thomas Gautschi 7 Manuel Liniger 6	20:15
January 28, 2006
Switzerland Martin Engeler 9 (3 pen) Thomas Gautschi 6 Pascal Jenny 6 Andre Schmid 5 (1 pen)	31-31	Poland Piotr Obrusiewicz 6 (5 pen) Karol Bielecki 5 (1 pen) Bartosz Jurecki 5 Marcin Lijewski 5 Grzegorz Tkaczyk 5	16:15
Ukraine Ruslan Prudius 7 Sergiy Shel'menko 6 Yuriy Kostetskiy 5 (2 pen) Vitaliy Nat 5 Yuriy Petrenko 5	31-33	Slovenia Siarhei Rutenka 9 (2 pen) Uroš Zorman 6 Vid Kavtičnik 5 Jure Natek 5	18:30
January 29, 2006
Slovenia Siarhei Rutenka 10 (3 pen) Zoran Jovičič 5 (5 pen) Vid Kavtičnik 5 Jure Natek 5	33-29	Poland Karol Bielecki 9 (3 pen)	14:00
Switzerland Marco Kurth 6 Martin Engeler 6 (5 pen)	30–37	Ukraine Igor Andryushchenko 7 Sergiy Shel'menko 7 Mykola Stetsyura 7 Yuriy Kostetskiy 6 (3 pen)	16:15

Group B

The matches in this group will be played in St. Jakobshalle, Basel (capacity 8,500). Germany became the first team to qualify, drawing their first match with Spain before overcoming Slovakia (who ended up by conceding 100 goals, the most in the group stage) in their second game. Spain followed soon after, beating France by 29–26 after a 17–9 lead at half time, but the French were also through as they would be ahead of Slovakia on head-to-head if the two were to end on two points each. Thus, their last match with Germany only determined how many points they would carry forward to the main round; France risked going through with nil, but after prevailing 27–25 they finished the group in second place and took two points.

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Spain	5	3	2	1	0	94	82	+12
France	4	3	2	0	1	88	75	+13
Germany	3	3	1	1	1	87	84	+3
Slovakia	0	3	0	0	3	72	100	–28


January 26, 2006
Germany Pascal Hens 9 Christian Zeitz 6 Andrej Klimovets 5	31–31	Spain Albert Rocas Comas 6 (2 pen) Iker Romero Fernandez 6 (3 pen) Rolando Urias Fonseca 6	15:45
France Joel Abati 6 (2 pen) Bertrand Gille 5	35–21	Slovakia	18:00
January 28, 2006
Slovakia Radoslav Antl 6 (1 pen) Rastislav Tabačko 5	26–31	Germany Andrej Klimovets 7 Michael Kraus 5	14:00
Spain Iker Romero Fernandez 10 (2 pen) Albert Rocas Comas 7 (4 pen) Alberto Enterrios Rodriguez 5	29–26	France Nikola Karabatic 10 Jerome Fernandez 7	16:15
January 29, 2006
Germany Andrej Klimovets 6	25–27	France Michel Guigou 6 (4 pen) Daniel Narcisse 5 Jerome Fernandez 5 (1 pen)	15:15
Spain Rubén Garabaya Arenas 8	34–25	Slovakia Martin Straňovský 8 Ján Kolesár 6	17:30

Group C

The matches in this group will be held in the Sursee/Lucerne Stadthalle in Sursee/Lucerne. Denmark and Iceland opened with wins, and with a draw in the second round both teams qualified for the main round. Serbia and Montenegro joined them due to the head-to-head encounter rule; despite finishing level on points with Hungary after losing to Denmark in the last match, Serbia and Montenegro had beaten Hungary and thus finished ahead. Iceland lost their last match, but nevertheless carried through three points to the main round, as did Denmark.

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Denmark	5	3	2	1	0	90	82	+8
Iceland	3	3	1	1	1	95	94	+1
Serbia and Montenegro	2	3	1	0	2	89	93	–4
Hungary	2	3	1	0	2	84	89	–5


January 26, 2006
Serbia and Montenegro Milorad Krivokapić 7 Žikica Milosavljević 5 (3 pen) Ratko Nikolić 5 Vladimir Petrić 5	31–36	Iceland Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson 10 (3 pen) Snorri Steinn Guðjónsson 9 (5 pen) Ólafur Stefánsson 8	18:00
Denmark Joachim Boldsen 6 (1 pen)	29–25	Hungary Dániel Buday 9 (3 pen) Gyula Gál 6	20:15
January 27, 2006
Hungary Gergö Ivánczik 6 Tamas Ivánczik 5	24–29	Serbia and Montenegro Žikica Milosavljević 8 (2 pen) Momir Ilić 6 (3 pen) Dragan Sudžum 6 (1 pen)	18:00
Iceland Snorri Steinn Guðjónsson 10 (6 pen) Arnór Atlason 6	28–28	Denmark Per Leegård 6 Joachim Boldsen 5	20:15
January 29, 2006
Hungary Dániel Buday 9 (3 pen) Gyula Gál 8 Gergö Ivánczik 7	35–31	Iceland Snorri Steinn Guðjónsson 10 (4 pen) Róbert Gunnarsson 6	18:00
Denmark Søren Stryger 9 (5 pen) Michael Knudsen 7	33–29	Serbia and Montenegro Dragan Sudžum 5 (3 pen)	20:15

Group D

This group will be played out in the Wankdorfhalle, Berne. Russia became the first team to qualify for the main round when they beat Portugal on 27 January. Croatia joined them later that day with a 32–28 win over Norway, and Norway and Portugal played off for the last main round spot on Sunday 29 January. Norway won that match by ten goals, thus proceeding to the main round with zero points; Russia got a full score with four points, despite nearly throwing away a five-goal lead in the last five minutes against Croatia.

Team	Pts	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD
Russia	6	3	3	0	89	82	+7
Croatia	4	3	2	1	85	79	+6
Norway	2	3	1	2	85	83	+3
Portugal	0	3	0	3	80	96	–16


January 26, 2006
Croatia Mirza Džomba 8 (4 pen) Petar Metličić 5	24–21	Portugal Ricardo Costa 6 (2 pen)	17:00
Russia Vitaliy Ivanov 7 (2 pen) Eduard Kokcharov 6 (4 pen)	24–21	Norway Alexander Buchmann 7 (6 pen) Kristian Kjelling 6 Frank Løke 5	19:10
January 27, 2006
Portugal Ricardo Costa 6 (2 pen) David Tavares 6 (2 pen) Eduardo Coelho 5 (1 pen)	32–35	Russia Eduard Kokcharov 6 (1 pen) Alexey Peskov 6 Yuriy Egorov 5 (2 pen)	18:00
Norway Kristian Kjelling 6	28–32	Croatia Ivano Balić 8 Renato Sulić 7 Slavko Goluža 5 (5 pen) Blaženko Lacković 5	20:15
January 29, 2006
Croatia Ivano Balić 9	29–30	Russia Alexey Rastvortsev 10 Eduard Kokcharov 7 (5 pen)	17:00
Portugal Carlos Carneiro 7 Ricardo Dias 6	27–37	Norway Frank Løke 8 Kristian Kjelling 6 Børge Lund 6	19:10

Main Group Stage

Results from the first group stage are carried forward into the main round.

Group I

Matches in this group will be held in St. Jakobshalle, Basel.

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Slovenia	4	2	2	0	0	66	60	+6
Germany	3	3	1	1	1	92	80	+12
Spain	3	2	1	1	0	60	57	+3
Poland	2	2	1	0	1	62	57	+5
France	2	2	1	0	1	53	54	-1
Ukraine	0	3	0	0	3	77	102	-25


January 31, 2006
Slovenia	–	France	15:15
Poland	–	Spain	17:30
Ukraine	22 – 36	Germany	15:10
February 1, 2006
Slovenia	–	Germany	15:15
Ukraine	–	Spain	17:45
Poland	–	France	20:00
February 2, 2006
Poland	–	Germany	15:15
Ukraine	–	France	17:45
Slovenia	–	Spain	20:00

Group II

This group's matches will take place in the Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen.

Team	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
Russia	4	2	2	0	0	54	50	+4
Iceland	3	2	1	1	0	64	59	+5
Denmark	3	2	1	1	0	61	57	+4
Croatia	2	2	1	0	1	61	58	+3
Norway	0	2	0	0	2	49	56	-7
Serbia and Montenegro	0	2	0	0	2	60	69	-9


January 31, 2006
Denmark	–	Croatia	15:45
Iceland	–	Russia	18:00
Serbia & Montenegro	–	Norway	20:15
February 1, 2006
Denmark	–	Norway	15:45
Serbia & Montenegro	–	Russia	18:00
Iceland	–	Croatia	20:15
February 2, 2006
Iceland	–	Norway	15:45
Serbia & Montenegro	–	Croatia	18:00
Denmark	–	Russia	20:15

Knock-outs

These will take place in the largest stadium to be used in the tournament, the Hallenstadion in Zürich (capacity 11,500)


February 4, 2006	Fifth place play-off
3rd I	–	3rd II	11:45
	Semi-finals
1st I	–	2nd II	14:15
2nd I	–	1st II	17:00
February 5, 2006	Third place play-off
Loser SF 1	–	Loser SF 2	13:30
	Final
Winner SF 1	–	Winner SF 2	16:00

External links

The official site of the championship with reports, results, statistics, etc.