2014 Men’s European Championship: Hungary book main round ticket

The last of three spots of Group B in Aalborg was confirmed only with the final buzzer of the last match of the preliminary round.

“I have to congratulate my team for their fighting spirit and for controlling this highly exciting match most of the time. I don’t want to emphasise any of my players, as it was only the team performance today,” Hungary’s coach Lajos Mocsai said.

First we stood strong in defence, but after the break we could not start our counter-attacks. We arrived in Denmark with many problems, so reaching the main round in this tough group is a great success for Hungarian handball,” he added.

As Spain and Iceland had already been confirmed, Hungary will be part of the next stage, while the Norwegian need to book their return flight despite their first point in Aalborg.

“It was a great match with really good handball. Initially we had problems in defending, but in the second half our defence worked well, we played with a lot of counter-attacks and stopped the Hungarian fast-breaks. Unfortunately we did not win,” Norwegian coach Robert Hedin said.