Handball: The tricolors return to the EC after 28 years

The national handball team will debut today at the European Championship, with Austria, in Mannheim. The tricolors return to a EC final tournament after a 28-year break. The goals are not very bold, the differences in current handball being very big, our team now entering the category: "it is important to participate".

The European Championship started with a record at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Dusseldorf. The teams of Germany and France achieved clear victories on the first day of the European Men's Handball Championship - EHF EURO 2024, organized by Germany, on which occasion a world attendance record for a handball match was recorded, 53,586 spectators in the Dusseldorf arena . Germany defeated Switzerland 27-14 in Group A, and France defeated North Macedonia 39-29. The games took place behind closed doors, at the stadium of the Fortuna Dusseldorf football team, transformed into a handball hall. The current attendance record for a handball match dates back to 2014, when 44,189 people watched a German men's championship match between Rhein-Neckar and Hamburg. No team has ever won the European title on home soil, but Germany are dreaming of achieving this feat after winning the trophy in 2016.

The official tricolor team, which is coached by Xavi Pascual, Mihai Popescu and Bogdan Pralea, consists of the following players: Ionuţ Iancu, Dan Vasile - goalkeepers, Nicusor Negru, Sabin Constantina, Alexandru Tărîţă, Ionuţ Nistor Ioniţă, Călin Dedu, Robert Nagy, Adrian Rotaru, Robert Militaru, Dan Racotea, Andrei Dragan, Gabriel Ilie, Daniel Stanciuc, Gabriel Cumpanici, Cristian Ghiţă, Marius Sadoveac, Liviu Caba, Demis Grigoraş, Andrei Buzle. In preparation for participating in the EC in Germany, Romania played seven friendlies: 28-38 with Montenegro, 21-40 with France, 31-27 with Greece, 31-25 with Georgia, 31-37 with Switzerland, 30-23 with Argentina and 29-19 with Bosnia-Herzegovina. At the EC final tournament, Romania will play in Mannheim, in group B, with Austria (January 12), Spain (January 14) and Croatia (January 16). The first two places will qualify for the main groups.

The final tournament of EC2024 takes place in six cities in Germany. The Romanian national team last participated in a European Championship final tournament in the 1996 edition, when it ranked 9th out of 12 participating teams.