The 2020 EHF European Men's Handball Championship was the 14th edition of the tournament and the first to feature 24 national teams. It was co-hosted for the first time in three countries – Austria, Norway and Sweden – from 9 to 26 January 2020.
Spain won their second consecutive title by defeating Croatia 22–20 in the final, while co-hosts Norway won the bronze match against Slovenia. Other hosts Austria finished 8th and Sweden 7th.
Sander Sagosen's 65 goals was at the time a record for a single player at any European Championship, until Mathias Gidsel's 68 goals at the 2026 European Men's Handball Championship.
Bidding process The interested nations were as follows: Austria Norway Sweden
In December 2013, these were announced as the bids:
and
After further negotiations, between the three bids and the European Handball Federation, it was decided to merge the three individual bids into one big bid. Due to the decision to merge the bids, the EHF decided to bring forward the expansion of the tournament to 24 teams, which was originally going to start in 2022. On 20 September 2014, at the EHF Congress in Dublin, Austria, Norway and Sweden were all given the hosting rights.
Venues Stockholm, Sweden Malmö, Sweden Gothenburg, Sweden Tele2 ArenaCapacity: 19,000 Malmö ArenaCapacity: 13,000 ScandinaviumCapacity: 12,000 Vienna, Austria Graz, Austria Trondheim, Norway Wiener StadthalleCapacity: 12,000 Graz Messe ArenaCapacity: 6,000 Trondheim SpektrumCapacity: 8,600
Qualification
Qualified teams Country Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in tournament (2010, 2014, 2018) (2000, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) 12 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) 13 (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) winner (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018) winner (1994, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018) winner (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) winner (1998, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) winner (1994, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) winner (1994, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) runner-up (debut) runner-up (1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006) winner (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) runner-up (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016) winner (1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018) runner-up (1994, 2008, 2014, 2016, 2018) runner-up (2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016) runner-up (2002, 2004, 2006) runner-up (2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) runner-up (2008, 2014, 2016, 2018) third place (debut) third place (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) third place (debut) third place (2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010)
Note: Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.
Marketing The official anthem of the competition is "All for us", made and performed by Swedish DJ and producer Wahlstedt.
Draw The draw was held at the Erste Bank Campus in Vienna on 28 June 2019.
Seeding The seedings were announced on 17 June 2019.
Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 (assigned to F1)
(assigned to E1) (assigned to A1) (assigned to D2)
(assigned to C2)
(assigned to B3)
Squads
Match officials On 21 August 2019, 23 couples were announced. On 27 December 2019, EHF replaced the Serbian referee pair Nenad Nikolić and Dušan Stojković with the Latvian referee pair Zigmārs Sondors and Renārs Līcis, due to an injury and late recovery of Nikolić in late October.
Preliminary round Country Referees Radojko BrkićAndrej Jusufhodžić Dalibor JurinovićMarko Mrvica Jesper MadsenHenrik Mortensen Charlotte BonaventuraJulie Bonaventura Robert SchulzeTobias Tönnies Jónas ElíassonAnton Pálsson Lars JørumHåvard Kleven Zigmārs SondorsRenārs Līcis Michal BaďuraJaroslav Ondogrecula Bojan LahDavid Sok Andreu MarínIgnacio García
Preliminary and main round Country Referees Václav HoráčekJiří Novotný Vaidas MažeikaMindaugas Gatelis Ivan PavićevićMiloš Ražnatović Gjorgi NachevskiSlave Nikolov Duarte SantosRicardo Fonseca Mirza KurtagicMattias Wetterwik Arthur BrunnerMorad Salah
Main round Country Referees Matija GubicaBoris Milošević Martin GjedingMads Hansen Stevann PichonLaurent Reveret Lars GeipelMarcus Helbig Óscar RaluyÁngel Sabroso
Preliminary round All times are local (UTC+1).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Main round Points and goals gained in the preliminary group against teams that advance were transferred to the main round.
Group I
Group II
Knockout stage
Bracket
Semi-finals
Fifth place game
Third place game
Final
Ranking and statistics
Final ranking The teams ranked fourth in each group after the completion of the preliminary round matches were ranked 18 to 24, while teams ranked third in each group after the completion of the preliminary round matches were ranked 13 to 18 according to the number of points won in the preliminary round. Places seven or eight were attributed to the two teams ranked fourth in the groups, places nine and ten were attributed to the two teams ranked fifth in the groups, places eleven and twelve were attributed to the two teams ranked sixth in the group according to the number of points won by the respective teams after completion of the main round matches. Places one to six were decided by play–off or knock–out.
Rank Team 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Team qualified for the 2021 World Men's Handball Championship and the 2020 Summer Olympics Team qualified for the 2021 World Men's Handball Championship and the Olympic Qualification Tournament Team qualified for the Olympic Qualification Tournament
2020 Men's European Champions SpainSecond title
Team roster: Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas, Jorge Maqueda, Ángel Fernández Pérez, Raúl Entrerríos, Alex Dujshebaev, Daniel Sarmiento Melián, Rodrigo Corrales, Julen Aguinagalde, Ferran Solé, Iosu Goñi Leoz, Adrià Figueras, Joan Cañellas, Viran Morros, Aleix Gómez, Aitor Ariño, Gedeón Guardiola, Daniel Dujshebaev.Head coach: Jordi Ribera.
All-Star Team The all-star team and awards were announced on 26 January 2020.
Position Player Goalkeeper Right wing Right back Centre back Left back Left wing Pivot
Awards Award Player Most Valuable Player Best Defence Player Topscorer (65 goals)
Statistics
Top goalscorers Rank Name Goals Shots 1 Sander Sagosen 65 104 63 2 Mikita Vailupau 47 63 75 3 Nikola Bilyk 46 64 72 4 Jure Dolenec 42 66 64 5 Alex Dujshebaev 37 59 63 Artsem Karalek 50 74 Ondřej Zdráhala 59 63 8 Domagoj Duvnjak 36 54 67 Magnus Jøndal 50 72 10 Robert Weber 35 48 73
Top goalkeepers Rank Name Saves Shots 1 Nebojša Grahovac 40 12 30 2 Johannes Bitter 35 43 123 Niklas Landin Jacobsen 34 98 4 Torbjørn Bergerud 34 90 265 Andreas Palicka 44 128 6 Mikael Appelgren 33 39 117 Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas 66 199 8 Rodrigo Corrales 32 41 130 Klemen Ferlin 86 272 10 Vincent Gérard 31 24 77 Adam Morawski 26 83 Alfredo Quintana 84 271 Nebojša Simić 32 103
References
External links Official website