The current holders of every major title are among those fighting for the trophy at the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 — defending EURO champions Spain, world champions Denmark, and Olympic champions France — and two of them will meet in the first semi-final in Budapest on Friday night.
It is the third semi-final between Spain and Denmark in the last year, and the history is in overwhelming favour of the Scandinavian side.
SEMI-FINAL
Spain vs Denmark
Friday 28 January, 18:00 CET, live on EHFTV
- both sides are back-to-back champions of a major competition: Spain won the EHF EURO 2020 and 2018, while Denmark raised the trophies at the World Championships in 2021 and 2019
- Spain have not won an official match against Denmark since 2015, when they knocked Denmark out in the World Championship quarter-final stage
- Denmark won both the World Championship 2021 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games semi-finals against Spain — 35:33 and 27:23, respectively
- both teams’ top scorers at the EHF EURO 2022 are backs: Mikkel Hansen has scored 40 while Mathias Gidsel has netted 35 — and missed only one — for Denmark, while Agustín Casado tallies 31 for Spain. All three are nominated for the All-star Team
- Gidsel has made the most assists for his side, with 33, while Casado has made 31 for Spain
- Denmark own the overall head-to-head record against Spain, with 16 wins to Spain’s seven in mutual duels, and one draw. At the EHF EURO, Denmark have won seven times and Spain twice
- at the EHF EURO 2022, both teams won six games and lost once. Spain beat Czech Republic, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina in the preliminary round then Germany, Russia and Poland in the main round. Denmark defeated Montenegro, Slovenia and North Macedonia in the first stage then Iceland, Croatia and The Netherlands
- Denmark’s loss came against fellow semi-finalists France in the last main round match, after the Scandinavian side led for 58 minutes. That result meant they ranked second in group I and determined Spain as their semi-final opponents
- Spain’s defeat was against Norway in main round 3 — and with it, the longest unbeaten streak in EHF EURO history, 17 games, came to an end
- it is Denmark’s 100th game at the EHF EURO and Spain’s 110th
Against a great Danish team, we have to see what is possible tomorrow. We had some difficulties on the path to the semi-finals, but now we are here. We have some experienced players, who give a helping hand to the younger player, so we see what we can manage.
I hope that we can win this medal. It was our main goal to make it the semi-finals and the final weekend, which we have reached. To win a medal, this is what we are here for, as always we want to go all the way now. No doubt about that.
