Iceland roars after the Denmark – France game. “Thanks for nothing!”

One by one: Iceland joined the fight to advance to the semi-finals of the European handball championship after they sensationally defeated the French Olympic champions on Saturday 29:21. On Monday, however, they made it complicated, losing to the Croatians 22:23 (who had virtually no chance of being promoted). On Wednesday, the Icelanders smashed Montenegro 34:24 and had to wait for the result of the Denmark-France match. Denmark was guaranteed promotion, and the French needed a draw at the very least. And for a long time the game was as if Icelanders wrote its script: the French goalkeepers only hit one ball in the first half, and Denmark led 17:12 to the half-time and 27:22 just over 10 minutes from the end. But after an amazing finish, the French won 30:29, taking first place – pushing the Danes to second and the Icelanders to third. And the “Tri-color” was leading in this match only once: when they threw the decisive goal 101 seconds from the end.

Icelanders in despair: Danes cannot be trusted!

Iceland’s game for 5th place with Norway remained, which is quite a feat, but it is hardly surprising that they were bitter: especially due to the circumstances in which the French won, making up for huge losses (and the Danes played without the two biggest stars, Mikkel Hansen and Mathias Gidsel). Denmark led almost the entire game to lose, costing Iceland a promotion. Danio, thanks for nothing – writes the Icelandic website Visir, pointing to the enormous expectations of Icelanders.

– But the Danes can never be trusted for anything. The author of the text knows this perfectly well because he lives in Copenhagen. The other half was full of bad and incomprehensible decisions – we read on. The author points out, inter alia, for a goalkeeper swap: taking Kevin Moeller off and betting on Niklas Landin, which he considers a strange decision.

– The Danes released the victory and saved it. In the second half, Denmark came to a complete standstill – we read on the website of RUV, the Icelandic public broadcaster. The Icelanders may be comforted by the fact that they are playing a very good tournament, which their rivals pointed out to. – They have an amazing team. Several players have recently joined the team and they are of a very high level, they are extremely brave – said Nebojsa Simić from Montenegro after Wednesday’s match.

there remains the Friday match against Norway for 5th place (15:30). His stake will be automatic promotion to next year’s world championships. They will be held in Poland and Sweden. At the World Cup, apart from the hosts, the Danes (world champions) and Spain, France, Argentina, Uruguay, Bahrain, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia will surely play. The tournament will take place on January 11-29, 2023 (matches will be played in four Polish cities: Kraków, Katowice, Płock and Gdańsk).

The greatest success of the Iceland national team at the European Championships is the 3rd place in 2010 in Austria and the 4th place in Sweden in 2002. At the World Cup, the best result is the quarter-final in 2007, and at the Olympic Games it is the second place in 2008 in Beijing (Iceland defeated Poles in the quarter-finals).