Northmacedonia or Switzerland – who will take it all?

On Saturday evening, the EHF M18 European championship finalists were announced at the “Rimi Olimpic Center” in Riga. In the two semi-final games, the winners of Group A, North Macedonia, competed for a place in the final against the 2nd place of Group B, Luxembourg. On the other hand, the Switzerland handball players faced the hosts – Latvia.

In both semi-final games won the subgroup winners – Northmacedonia and Switzerland, who both are going to play in the final. Latvia and Luxembourg will compete for the bronze medal.

First game of the semi-finals

Northmacedonia – Luxembourg     33:23 (15:9)

  • The game started nervously, the first goal by the Luxembourg national team was scored only after six minutes had been played In the continuation of the game, North Macedonia made a 4-0 breakthrough, reaching 6-1. With aggressive defense, great goalkeeping and team cooperation, North Macedonia went in the break with 15:9.
  • In the second half, North Macedonian handball players enjoyed handball, allowing the audience to enjoy beautifully scored goals and successful collaborations on the court. North Macedonia completely controlled the game, not allowing the Luxembourg national team to even hope for a victory.
  • North Macedonia has not once admitted that they have come to this tournament to win. This can be seen in their attitude not only on the field, but also off it. In this game as well, they played convincingly and got a well-deserved victory – 33:23 and a place in the final.
  • In this game, another great game for the top scorer of the championship, Aleksandar Petkovski, who scored seven goals. Slavcho Shules, who scored ten goals in this game, was recognized as the best player of the North Macedonia national team. Eight goals and the title of the best player for Luxembourg to Luka Kaysen.

Slavcho Shule (Player of team Northmacedonia): “It was a tough game. I am proud of my team, we stayed focused the whole 60 minutes of the game. About tomorrow’s game – every finale game is hard, if we are going to be as focused as today, we are going to win.”

Naum Taneski (Coach of team Northmacedonia): “We are with 100 % in every game. Tomorrow is the final. We are going to be ready for the game with all 100% and we are going to win this championship.”

Luka Kaysen (Player of team Luxembourg): “It was a tough game; we knew that our today’s opponents are very strong team. We did our best. Now we are going to try to play better at the bronze medal game.”

Tom Janin (coach of team Luxembourg): “As we expected – really strong opponent. In the first had we had problems to fight in the defense. We also missed our free shots. The second half we started much better, but again we made the same mistakes. We need to be more confident, more efficient. Overall it was a good practice for tomorrow’s game. Tomorrow we are trying to improve our game, make less mistakes and win the bronze medal.”

Second game of the semi-finals

Swizterland – Latvia                         39:22 (15:12)

  • This semi-final battle started as nervously as the first semi-final of the day. For a long time, the teams scored a goal – here and there, promising the spectators an exciting continuation of the game. Still tied in the first 15 minutes of the first half – 7:7.
  • Five minutes before the end of the first half, the Swiss national team had achieved the biggest advantage so far – 14:10. After 30 minutes – 15:12.
  • The second half started with the Swiss national team scoring four unanswered goals to make it 20:12. The Latvian national team continued to make mistakes and miss shots, thus only helping the opponents to increase their advantage.
  • After eight minūtes was played, for the first time, the difference in the result was also double-digit – 24:14. The dynamics of this result continued throughout the games. Seven minutes to the end of the game – 34:20 in favor of Switzerland. Final result of the game – 39:22.
  • The best player in the Latvian national team – Rihards Bisters, who scored four goals. In team Switzerland player of the match award received Gino Steenaerts, who scored seven goals.

Marco Luthi (coach of team Switzerland) – “We are happy to made it to the finals. It was our goal. It was a tough game from the beginning of the game. Last 30 minutes the game was clear. It was good for today, but not good enough for tomorrow. We are looking forward to the finals. We are looking forward to the finals. We know this will be completely different game and we go for it.”

Today at 15:00 Latvia will compete against Luxembourg for the 3rd place, but at 17:00 most awaited game – final, where Northmacedonia and Switzerland are fighting for the champions title.  The winners of the tournament not only celebrate a trophy, but promotion to the M20 EHF EURO 2024 as well as a place at the M19 World Championship 2023.