Men's EHF EURO 2026 flash quotes: 16 January

HERNING/OSLO/MALMÖ – Comments from players and coaches from media calls at the Men's EHF EURO 2026.

FRANCE

Guillaume Gille (FRA) – France head coach

On the game against Ukraine on Saturday:

“Ukraine have a much bigger motivation than just handball, of course, representing your country when it is under attack is something else. What Ukraine is going through, on the ground, is horrible. But we have to focus on ourselves, and on the game. There is not much we can do to help them, sadly. They are a very young team, that fights a lot. But I am sure that if we play with respect, we should have the upper hand.”

On the risks for France to be already thinking about the game against Norway:

“That is the risk, obviously, everybody expects the finale of the group to be against Norway on Monday. We have warned the players that if we play bad against Ukraine, there is a risk that this could be repeated against Norway against Norway. We have to keep our rhythm, keep our concentration to the maximum and try to keep going.”

On defending the EHF EURO 2024 title:

 “That does not mean anything to me anymore. So many things have changed now, either in our team and for our opponents. That title, no-one is going to take it away from us. The trophy is at the federation, on a shelf, and now we can move on and try to focus on what is happening now. This gold medal was an important in some of our players’ career, but we can’t remain stuck on what happened in 2024. To me, it feels like we are not defending anything.”

On the various tactical options that he can use:

“That’s part of the DNA of my team, we have often been able to have different solutions over the years. But I am also really depending on the players that are in my roster. You don’t play the same when Hugo Descat or Nédim Rémili are here or injured, for example. I have many players in the squad that can play on various positions on both ends of the court. That’s something that makes us richer, sometimes, than our opponents, but that can also play against us, at times.”

On the new dynamics within the France team:

“It’s different since some of the leaders we had — such as Luka Karabatic or Vincent Gérard — retired. It feels like the leadership is way more shared now than it was before. But in the meantime, there is a hierarchy that is visible, because some players play more than others, or some have more experience than others. That’s something that comes naturally. There are players that have been with the team for almost 10 years now, that have won Olympic titles with crucial roles within the team, it’s hard not to brand these guys as leaders.”

Yannis Lenne (FRA) – right wing

On the game on Thursday against Czechia:

“It was a good first game, we are satisfied that everyone was able to step on the court, take the temperature, score a goal. It’s good for the confidence that we were able to start this way. Of course, that does not mean much, but it’s always better to start with a large than to fight for 60 minutes and just win by one.”

On coming back from injury:

“I feel good, the last year has not been too easy, I had several injuries that kept me away from the court. So far, everything is running fine, I am happy to be here among guys that I really appreciate.”

On how his life changed since he became a dad:

“It’s completely different, and it’s good, as it takes my mind off handball a little bit. Before, I was with my partner and I thought about handball a lot, even at home. Now it’s different, when I am at training, it’s still all about handball, when I come home, I put on the daddy suit. It’s kind of good, actually, to have a break and to be able to think about something else.”

On the benefits of moving to Veszprém last summer:

“It made me grow a lot, in every aspect. When I was playing in Montpellier, I was in my comfort zone, everything was kind of easy. Even though, you put pressure on yourself, this is still your comfort zone.

“When I arrived in Veszprém, everything was different. Speaking English, the way people live there, the culture, it’s all brand new. And it pushes you, off and on the court. There are huge expectations within the club and you have no right to fail. I think it’s another level, and it helps me when I play with France as well, of course.”

AUSTRIA

Jakob Nigg (AUT) – right wing

On the defeat against Germany:

“It was real fun to face Germany in a huge arena with thousands of fans, regardless of the result. Unfortunately, we did not carry a point from this match though we showed a really strong performance. It hurt, but it was fun. Personally, I was satisfied, I scored many goals though I missed the first two shots. Later, I never doubted that I could fail again, and it worked.”

On the upcoming matches in group A:

“We have to win the next two matches if we want to make it to the main round. We will be well-prepared and we are really looking forward to this match.”

On the pressure Austria are now under:

“A certain amount of pressure is good, but I go out on the court and simply want to play handball, simply want to help my team. You cannot think permanently that ‘if we lose this match, everything is over’, in contrast: you need to have a focus, but you also have to feel the joy of playing and to stay positive.”

On beating their next opponents, Spain, at the EHF EURO 2024:

“It was an incredible euphoria. I did not play in this match, but I tried to push my team from the bench. I had lost my voice after this match from shouting for my teammates. This was the match, when we clicked as a team.

“From that moment on, we knew that huge results are possible. In the outside world, not many believed that we could knock out Spain, but in the team, we had this belief. We were sure we could manage it.”

On his very emotional way of celebrating a goal:

“Every player is part of the team motivation. Others do not cheer that much after a goal, but push themselves in the dressing room before the match. I have this joy on the court, this is my style. We need to have those emotions, otherwise we cannot be successful. I do it for me, for the team, for the fans.”

SWEDEN

Mikael Appelgren (SWE) – head coach

On the pressure at the beginning of the EHF EURO:

“You can feel it, but it's both positive and negative. We are a team with the great ambitions. We know that we have a lot of good chances in the championship when you play at home, but it also comes with a little bit of pressure, and also joy that we are at home. So this is mixed emotions, but mostly positive.”

On his players:

“It's a big thing for us if we can have that, no injuries like at the last championship. But that's only one part of the game. Another part is that in the Euro, it's a lot about how you do it the last 10 minutes. The last 10 minutes of the match many times end up with one goal plus or minus for the other team. So it's about being sharp there. So, there are some challenges for sure in this tournament.”

On the first game against the Netherlands:

“It's a very difficult game. We saw that game two years ago and if you play against the Swedish coach, he for sure knows the Swedish team very, very well. We were down in that match in minute 56. They were in the lead with some great saves of Andreas Palicka, we managed to win it, but we were not having control over that game.

“So it was almost a little bit of luck in the end, or that our goalkeeper performed extra good when it was the most important. We need to play better than we did at that time, because the Netherlands are that dangerous. When they are having a good day, they can beat everybody.”

On group E:

“In the Euros, the groups are very difficult. I don't know if we are favourites against Croatia that finished second in the last World Championship and we finished 14th. We can talk about favourites or per cent or whatever statistic, but when the ball is in play, we are quite similar teams.

“It is so important to live here and now, take one game at the time, and focus on that. Because if you start to think about another game when you play against the Netherlands, for sure it's not two points.”

Felix Claar (SWE) – centre back

On being ready after missing the 2025 IHF Men's World Championship:

“Last year, it was tough to be at home and watching games on TV. I wish I was there, that I could help team somehow. But, now I'm here and we play in Sweden. It's going to be incredible feeling to run in my Malmö Arena tomorrow in front of a full house with 11,000 Swedish fans. It feels like it has been a very, very long pre-camp from the 2nd of January. We are ready now.

On the pressure as co-hosts:

“The pressure is there and we also put some pressure on ourselves. We have a key game against the Netherlands on first day, a good Netherlands so that game is going to set a tournament a bit.”

On the first match against the Netherlands:

“Staffan Olson knows a lot of thing about our players and how we want to play. They are playing incredibly fast, in my opinion Dani Baijens and Luc Steins they probably play the fastest handball. When the Netherlands and them are playing on a high level, they can match everyone.”

On personal expectations:

“I have high expectations on myself. I want to deliver. I want to play as much as possible. I want to go out there and enjoy, have fun, and deliver.”

On the top three contenders for medals at the EHF EURO:

“I say number one, clearly, Denmark. I think they are number one, two, and then we are there with a lot of other teams that can fight for the third spot. Denmark are really big favourites.”

Sebastian Karlsson (SWE) – right wing

On being ready for the start of the EHF EURO:

“I hope we are ready, I think we are. We have been preparing for a long time, so I hope we will draw some benefits from that and show it already in the first game.”

On his expectations:

“I find it intriguing and enjoyable to play in front of a full Swedish crowd against a good opponent like the Netherlands. We can draw more good things from it, than see it as a pressure thing. Of course, there is pressure involved as well, but I think that in the end, we're going to have a huge benefit from having our home crowd in our backs and that we will draw energy from it.”

On the group opponents:

“It's a really difficult group, and as it should be, a European championship. It's not going to be any game that's just easy. It's going to be tough games all the way, and you really have to take one game at a time. We have been really trying to focus on that.

“It's easy also to get ahead of yourself in competitions and while we are trying to stay focused on one game at a time and just taking now first Netherlands and then what comes after.”

On the Swedish team:

“We have a mix between young and old, experienced players who can take on the mental of carrying the team. But also the young guys who can bring their energy. And we have got a few players back that weren't with us at the last in the last championship, so I think they can help and improve the team as well. I think all of us who were in Norway last time, all of us feel ready for a revenge in a way, we want to do a better performance this time around.”

CZECHIA

Daniel Kubeš (CZE) – Czechia head coach

On bouncing back after losing by 14 goals against France:

“It’s not easier to put ourselves back just because we lost badly. We try to forget about the loss, take the negatives to change it, but we also want to keep the positives. We scored 28 goals against one of the best teams in the world, the second part of the first half was really good as well, so was our seven-against-six system.”

On the pressure his young players could have felt playing their first EHF EURO:

“That might explain why we took those six goals right away, from the start. We started with some young players and maybe they got impressed, I don’t know. I am sure that now they have played their first game, they can only improve.”

On the game he expects against Norway:

“A tough one, of course. They play really fast, they have really good players. I think that we have to remain in the game for as long as possible if we want to upset them. That was the plan against France as well, but we did not manage to do it. If you lose by six right away, it’s hard to come back. We have to be better in this part of the game.”

Jan Hrdlička (CZE) – goalkeeper

On the game against France on Thursday:

“It was tough of course, our game plan did not work as we wanted. Not everything has to be thrown to the bin, though, there are things that we are satisfied with. From time to time, we managed to play very well and to show good stuff. But when you play against some of the best players in the world, of course, you really have to keep up with the pace.”

On the opportunity the Czech players have to play at the EHF EURO:

“When you play France, you play against some of the best in the world, and maybe some of us did not expect this level of preciseness. It is a huge step for some of the young players in our team, even though we had warned them about all of this. Being here and playing this competition is a great opportunity to gain experience and to improve.”

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