Handle with care: The importance of an EHF EURO opener

In recent editions, it has been rare for the teams that rank in the top six at the Men’s EHF EURO to lose their opening game. The last time such a record occurred was in 2018, when finalists Sweden were defeated by two in their round 1 match against Iceland, while sixth-ranked Czechia lost to Germany in the same stage.

On the other hand, shock results like Denmark and France’s early exits at the EHF EURO 2020 or Hungary’s elimination in the same stage at their home edition in 2022 were preceded by defeats in their first games.

“If you lose the first match, then everything will be a little bit stressed. Maybe, you also lose a little belief in yourself and in your team,” says Denmark assistant coach Henrik Kronborg.

The first game can set the tone for a team’s campaign, but in the context of the championship for all 24 squads, the opener is about more than what will eventuate in terms of the positions at the conclusion of the EHF EURO. Also, as any player or coach will say, the history and trends from before mean nothing when it comes to what is unfolding now.

So then looking at what impact an opening game can have should focus more on the specific effect on a team as they move forward into the competition, whatever their goals.

“It feels like it’s important because of the confidence first of all, but when you start another match, everything is forgotten about the previous match,” says Norway coach Jonas Wille. “If you start badly or well, that’s what counts here and then, but of course, for the way we go into the next match, it’s with a good feeling.”

The first game plays a huge role in showing teams how they measure up, how their preparation has served them and the reality of where they are against others compared to seeing their own form in training, so a defeat can be difficult to recover from if a side has entered an event with high hopes and get a feeling they are not where they thought they were.

“The night is long after defeat, however, a new day comes and you start working with the team to prepare even better,” says Spain coach Jordi Ribeira, whose side lost their opener against Croatia.

“The one training we have after the defeat at the championship is very important, to explain the news and situation to the players about our next match and the mistakes we made in the previous match. There are always good and bad moments but always we recover the spirit of the team. Even if you lose the first match you know the competition is still long and you have much more to give.”

The first game can be an opportunity to see what needs to be improved in an early stage that may be less impactful than if a team runs into the same issues later in the championship. Better to learn your weak points and have the chance to work on them early than collapse at a critical point later on.

“It’s always hard to make the transition between the preparation, where nothing really counts, and the competition, where every ball counts. But in the same way that preparation does not say too much about how the competition will go, the first game is not necessarily a good indicator of how the competition will go,” says France coach Guillaume Gille.

“In a way, you might see from the start if your team is going the wrong direction, but not if it is going to go far in a competition. I always tell my players not to look too much ahead.”

The Iceland versus Serbia clash in group C is an interesting example in this respect, as the teams played the only draw of round 1 and both were left with a lot to think about. For Serbia, the match was overall positive – 58 minutes of positive – before Iceland scored three late goals to turn the 27:24 score for Serbia into a level result and grab a point.

“From the first moment, when I was in the changing room after the match, I was trying on the players to focus on the first 58 minutes, not the last two. It will be a really big mistake if we review one more time and one more time and one more time these last two minutes. There are some mistakes that we did – all of us. I did some mistakes also in these last two minutes,” says Serbia coach Antonio Gerona.  

“90 per cent of the players perhaps, before the match against Iceland, would say, ‘OK, if we are able to be leading by three in the first 58 minutes’, all of them will sign that. That means that we did a good, good job. And we cannot hide this for two bad decisions in the last two minutes.”

From Iceland’s perspective, the game was not so positive, but walking away without a defeat was a consolation considering the hope of proceeding far at the EHF EURO 2024. With the draw, the Nordic side escaped the worst punishment for their self-stated weaker performance.

“Even the big teams are struggling a bit; are trying to find the right feeling. Everybody is excited, some emotions, stuff like that,” says Iceland back Aron Pálmarsson about what makes an opener different.

“That is usually normal, especially the first half of the first match, but it went through the whole game with us. Also, I think too many key players played bad. Our first line, like me, Gisli [Kristjansson] and Ómar [Ingi Magnusson], we all played really bad. Far away from our quality. That cannot happen again.”

If the first game can go such a long way in helping a team feel they are on track for their goals or not, or identify what they need to improve, it is little surprise that coaching staff might choose to focus significant attention on that game in the preparation stage for a tournament.

Germany’s goalkeeper coach, former Sweden national team star Mattias Andersson, said his work with Andreas Wolff and David Späth was focused solely on round 1 in the later stages of the lead-up to the EURO: “We only focused on Switzerland, not the others.”

It is not an uncommon trend. Many teams concentrate far more attention on the opening game than what will follow in the preliminary round, especially when it comes to what is shared with the players.

“This first match, sometimes, is what you are going to do in the tournament. You lose this first match, sometimes after it is so difficult to win the others, reach the second phase, and if you are in the second phase without points, also it is difficult for the team to make something,” says Hungary coach Chema Rodriguez, whose team took the points against Montenegro in round 1 on Friday and will meet Serbia on Sunday in the competitive group C.

“When you play in the first match maybe with another team that you think that you can win more easily, sometimes you can prepare more for the others. But in our case, in our group, you need to focus all the time on the next match.”

Rodriguez is very familiar with the perils of a round 1 loss, as Hungary were defeated in their first game at the EHF EURO 2022, despite playing in a packed MVM Dome in Budapest that was almost entirely behind them. The team could never recover from that opening shock and ended up leaving the tournament at the end of the preliminary round after being seen as one of the potential medal favourites before the start. Now, Rodriguez has a different challenge: keep the team from becoming overconfident and focused on continuing their form.

“We need to go down a little bit and think that we almost made nothing. We have made the first match and after we have another two, and we need to win one to go to the other side. But I am lucky, I have guys who are so professional, so focused and they know everything. This morning [Saturday] we are preparing everything and they come like yesterday [Friday] is forgotten,” says Rodriguez.

Another factor related to the challenge of an opening match can be that the information at hand about an opponent is based on the past, and not necessarily how a team is playing right now or who will be their key performers, as Gille highlights: “There will always be a new player that’s good and that was not in the team a few months ago.”

Denmark had not met their round 1 opponents Czechia since 2018.

“You know that you play against a team with a lot of quality but still with a lot of unknown stuff, then it’s very, very difficult. I think you saw throughout the first matches that the favourites struggled a bit in the beginning. It didn’t surprise me that we also struggled a little bit in the beginning. I am just happy that we finished it better then we did in previous tournaments,” says Denmark back Rasmus Lauge.

Denmark’s assistant coach Kronberg comments: “You don’t know how they play, what are the physics, what are the strengths. You can look at the video, but it is not the same as being on the court. So that is why it’s so important in the first match to get the two points, to get the normal rhythm in a championship with only one day between the matches, and that’s normal.

“The first match is very special, and now is the normal rhythm and you know the players, you know the speed in the game, and then it’s more easy to play match number two and number three.”

So what does that rhythm involve? Across the coaching staff of the various teams, the approach is to complete analyses prior to the competition and then update those with the information gained and seen on court after the first games – and beyond – are played. The coaching staff at least will be well aware of their preliminary round opponents and share that with the players as necessary, as they approach each match.

In some cases, the staff may share some general analyses of preliminary round opponents prior to the tournament, but as throw-off approaches it is critical to keep the players focused on one game at a time – and that means not looking beyond the next rivals.

“I always analyse all opponents we know ahead of the start of the competition, but I don’t want to bother players with it before the actual game. They should be focused on one game at a time,” says Austria coach Ales Pajovic.

“The staff, and in particular the video staff, will gain some time by looking at all the opponents we might face in the first round, and even the main round. But there is no use giving this information to the players,” says France coach Gille. “Our analysis team are updating their info every day.

“In a competition, we always have pre-analysis and then up-to-date analysis. It’s usually not tactics-orientated, as the systems won’t change much, but more players-orientated.”

Although significant time is dedicated to analysing opponents, Croatia coach Goran Perkovac highlights that this is only a small part of preparing. Most of the focus should be on the team’s own strategy and performance level.

“My philosophy is that – and this is something I say to my players, despite all of the video analysis and preparation – the only important thing is how we play and what impression we leave. If we are playing good then the opponents need to adapt to us and prepare for our game and not us on their play. And it makes things a little bit easier,” says Perkovac.

After three groups played their round 2 games on Saturday night, the remaining three are back in action on Sunday. The rhythm is starting to flow, the analyses are continuing and the preparations have brought new rivals into focus. Which teams will capitalise on what they learned from the first games? And which round 1 stories will end up as those of the podium finishers?

Additional reporting: Kevin Domas, Filip Mishov, Danijela Vekić and Eric Willemsen

Photos © Kolektiff Images