The Danes have also collected three medals so far. Their three bronze medals from the last three European championships show that they must be taken in consideration when talking about the chances. The coach, Ulrik Wilbek, won World and Olympic Championship titles with the Danish women’s team and he is on the best road to repeat these achievements with the men as well. The Danish team are among the most experienced ones with professionals such as Christiansen, Jorgensen or Jeppesen coming from the best clubs of the World.

Russia always had great teams. Together with the Soviet Union and the CIS, they won four Olympic Games, three World championships and a European Championship (in 1996 Spain). The coach, Vladimir Maximov, has been in charge of the team since 2000. He won every possible trophy with the squad, but found new motivation in building the young Russian team of the future. This new squad is based on the prominent Russian club, Chehovskie Medvedi, and a few more experienced stars such as Kuleshov, Koksharov and Rastvortsev.

The organising country must always be taken seriously, and Norway are no exceptions. They will surely be able to capitalise the home advantage as their roster is full of world class players. The World Championship in Germany was not as successful as they imagined. Norway couldn’t go on from the group stage despite the great form and performance of Kjelling and Loke. The players were obviously disappointed but proved that they have a place in the elite by easily winning the “President’s Cup” – a tournament for the teams falling in the group stage.

This will be the first major tournament of Montenegro, but majority of the squad already have experience from earlier competitions (as part of the Serbia & Montenegro team).
Coach, Pero Milosevic, has several well known players in his squad. Most of them play abroad, all around Europe, four of them in Spain. Djurkovic, Kapisoda or Muratovic do not lack quality either and they will make it very difficult for Denmark, Russia and Norway in Group B.