The 2008 EHF European Men's Handball Championship (8th tournament) was held in Norway from 17 to 27 January, in the cities of Bergen, Drammen, Lillehammer, Stavanger and Trondheim. Denmark won the tournament with Croatia second and France third. This was the first time Denmark won a major international tournament.
Venues Drammen Stavanger DrammenshallenCapacity: 4,000 Stavanger IdrettshallCapacity: 7,000 Bergen Trondheim HaukelandshallenCapacity: 4,000 Trondheim SpektrumCapacity: 4,000 Lillehammer Håkons HallCapacity: 10,500
Qualification
Qualification matches took place in 2007. According to the EHF rules, the host (Norway) and the top six nations from the 2006 European Championship (France, Croatia, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Russia) were automatically qualified. The other nine places were determined after the play-off matches, held in June; nine teams were seeded, after qualifying for the 2006 Championship, while their opponents qualified through the preliminary group stages.
Qualified teams Country Qualified as Previous appearances in tournament Host 2 (2000, 2006) Semifinalist of 2006 European Championship 7 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006) Semifinalist of 2006 European Championship 6 (1994, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006) Semifinalist of 2006 European Championship 7 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006) Semifinalist of 2006 European Championship 7 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006) Fifth place of 2006 European Championship 7 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006) Sixth place of 2006 European Championship 7 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006) Playoff winner 1 (1994) Playoff winner 4 (1996, 1998, 2002, 2004) Playoff winner 5 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2006) Playoff winner 4 (2000, 2002, 2004, 2006) Playoff winner 0 (Debut) Playoff winner 3 (2002, 2004, 2006) Playoff winner 1 (2006) Playoff winner 6 (1994, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006) Playoff winner 6 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004)
Note: Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.
Draw The draw was held on 22 June 2007 in the TV2 Studio in Oslo.
Seeding The seedings were announced on 19 June 2007. Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4
Preliminary round All times are local (UTC+1).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Main round Group I
Group II
Final round Bracket
Semifinals
Fifth place game
Third place game
Final
Ranking and statistics
Final ranking 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
2008 Men's European Champions DenmarkFirst Title
Team roster Kasper Hvidt, Mikkel Holm Aagaard, Lasse Boesen, Lars T. Jørgensen, Jesper Jensen, Lars Rasmussen, Lars Christiansen, Lars Møller Madsen, Peter Henriksen, Bo Spellerberg, Michael V. Knudsen, Jesper Nøddesbo, Lars Krogh Jeppesen, Kasper Søndergaard, Joachim Boldsen, Hans Lindberg and Kasper Nielsen.Head coach: Ulrik Wilbek.
All-Star Team Goalkeeper: Left wing: Left back: Pivot: Centre back: Right back: Right wing: Source: EHF
Other awards Most valuable player: Best Defence Player:
Top goalscorers Rank Name Team Goals Shots %1 Ivano Balić 44 84 52Lars Christiansen 58 76Nikola Karabatić 89 49 4 Daniel Narcisse 43 72 605 Kim Andersson 41 78 53Lasse Boesen 76 54 7 Aleš Pajovič 39 70 56 8 Karol Bielecki 37 62 60 9 Holger Glandorf 36 72 50 10 Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson 34 63 54 Source: EHF
Top goalkeepers (minimum 20% of total shots received by team)
Rank Name Team % Saves Shots 1 Kasper Hvidt 40 124 3072 Steinar Ege 39 104 264 3 Nándor Fazekas 38 53 140 4 Beno Lapajne 37 55 1485 Oleg Grams 35 9 26José Javier Hombrados 71 203Goran Stojanović 71 2018 Mirko Alilović 34 72 211Johannes Bitter 59 176Thierry Omeyer 77 229Nenad Puljezević 44 130Gorazd Škof 45 132Tomas Svensson 49 143
References