Two games in Skopje to decide it all in group C

GROUP C

North Macedonia vs Romania
Wednesday 9 November, 18:00 CET, live on EHFTV

• the two sides are on the last two places in the group, with zero points; North Macedonia must win to progress to the next round, any other result sees Romania through
• Florentin Pera’s side is having their longest losing streak in EHF EURO history: six matches, while they won only one of their last 11
• since the current format was introduced in 2002, Romania have never failed to progress from the preliminary round – except for 2006, when they did not qualify for the final tournament
• no team has scored fewer goals than North Macedonia at this EHF EURO: 29; Romania have scored 49
• North Macedonia and Romania are the two teams that have kept possession the longest (69 minutes and 11 seconds for the co-hosts, 67:55 for Romania) and had the largest number of passes (2,019 and 1,944 respectively)

North Macedonia coach Ljubomir Savevski: “Romania are favourites, no doubt. We have a very young team, and we will try to do our best, especially for our fans, who left the arena quite sad after the last two matches.”

Romania left back Cristina Neagu: “It is very important not to underestimate North Macedonia, because it is an all-or-nothing match. They are the co-hosts, they did not prove too much against France or the Netherlands, but the tables are turned now and it will be a totally different match. We must not appease them and fall into their trap, but I think we are the better team and we need to win this game.”

France vs Netherlands
Wednesday 9 November, 20:30 CET, live on EHFTV

• the two sides have both scored 59 goals in the first two matches, being the fourth best attacks in the competition, 11 goals scored less than the leaders, Norway
• France and the Netherlands have the top two defences in the competition in terms of goals conceded, with France leading the way with 39 goals and the Netherlands just behind, with 43 goals conceded in the first two matches of the preliminary round
• this will be the 50th game at the EHF EURO for the Netherlands, with 22 wins, one draw and 26 losses, only the 12th team in history to reach this milestone
• the game will decide who how many points each team will take into the main round
• France and Netherlands have met nine times in the past seven years, with France taking seven wins, most recently at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics: 32:22

Netherlands coach Per Johansson: “It is always tough to play such matches, but I think it is going to be a 50-50 match. We are giving it our all to win and start the main round with four points, which would be very important for us.”

France coach Olivier Krumbholz: “We would like to win the game, of course, because it is a very tough one, they play very fast, a very good tempo. But France have the best defence in the world and I hope we will show that. We want to win, but a loss would not be decisive, because we can go to the semi-finals if we win all three games in the main round.”