Cyprus out to show what a cool sport handball is

The fact that the EHF EURO 2020 will be played with 24 teams for the first time has given Europe’s emerging handball nations new hope to qualify for the final tournament.

One of the nations hoping for the jackpot is Cyprus, the second nation featuring in eurohandball.com’s “The road to 2020” series.

“The new rule increases the chance for smaller countries to qualify for the big event,” says Cyprus coach Andras Andreou. “Cyprus have a small chance to qualify, but we realise that it will still be difficult. We will have to be better than at least one team at a higher level than ourselves.”

While for some teams the first qualification phase starts at the beginning of November, Cyprus will play a tournament against Faroe Islands and Greece from 13 to 15 January.

The first team straight away reaches the main qualification phase. The teams ranked second and third will get a second chance at the European Trophy played in June next year.

“Just reaching the next stage of the qualification would mean a lot to us. It would be the first time our national team qualifies from any group stage.

“During the past few years, we are trying to build a better and more competitive …

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