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arIt’s time for another big handball championships, this time it’s the men who’s going to decide who will take home the European title, starting this coming Sunday.
Onebooker has once again asked our expert on this area to assess who holds the best chances to win it all, not least compared to the prices on offer with the bookmakers.
He came very close to landing a stunning odds on France at the Women’s World Cup in Championship, but alas they went down to Norway in the final.
This time the French are red hot favourites, which comes as no surprise, but our expert don’t like the odds.
“The way I see it 4 teams can win the EC; France, Spain, Denmark and Croatia. France will of course be the biggest favourites, but how many big titles can one country win in a row?
They started by taking the Olympics in 2008, then added the World Championships in 2009, defending the title in 2011 and in between they also took the EC in 2010. That’s 4 in a row, Ladies and Gentlemen, but even for such a great team, the series will one day come to an end and with the risk of that I simply think the prices are too short.
Spain will have to fight hard already in the group stage and also they second round looks very tough, and I’m not sure they have the stamina to fight out so many tough matches which it takes to go all the way.
Denmark has the best draw of the 4 sides, and are always capable of going a long way with coach Ulrik Wilbek at the helms. Denmark should at least be able to book a place in the semifinal, and they were the ones who took France all the way to extratime a year ago, which is why I think they are worth a shot.
The best shot is Croatia, however, at least in my opinion. It could easily be a semifinal between the Danes and Croatia, and should that happen, at least we’re secured one of our teams in the final!
The Championships are played in Serbia, which means the Croats almost enjoys home advantage and they’ll be very eager to avenge themselves from the time they hosted the Championships and came up short against the French in the final. A price of 8.00 on them to take the title looks brillant to me”.
