With two Olympic gold medals and a World championship title, the Croats only need to win a European Championship to complete the collection. They got close to it in 1994 and 2006 (won two bronze medals). Their coach, Lino Cervar, is an outstanding figure of European handball. He will have great players to choose from, but the core of the team – Balic, Dzomba, Lackovic, Vori, etc. – has been unchanged in the last years.

The silver medallists of Euro2004 have qualified after eliminating Fyro Macedonia. This is a major achievement already, but the team of Pozun will play for more. The national team is based on European top team, Celje Pivovarno Laško, but it also includes players with significant international experience, such as Kavticnik, Zorman or Zvizej. Though the performance shown in 2004 seems difficult to repeat, Slovenia may still qualify for the main round against very difficult opponents: Poland, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

The very successful team of Bogdan Wenta have easily qualified against the Netherlands. Though Wenta tested five young players at these matches, the core of the team – goalkeeper Szmal, Bielecki, Jurasik, Lijewski and the other Bundesliga players – remained unchanged since the World Championship in Germany. The best Euro result of Poland was a 10th place in Switzerland so far. Now they have a very good chance to improve on this record, but first they have to go on from the group stage where they are in one group with Croatia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

There was no doubt about the Euro place of the Czech team. They played some good matches at the 2007 World Championship and the team have established stars to count on. Filip Jicha was the top scorer of the team in Germany and the Lemgo player is among the most talented left backs in the World today. Other Bundesliga and French first division players, such as Jan Filip and Jan Sobol will also strengthen the team of Pavel Pauza. Slovenia, Poland and Croatia will be difficult to beat, but the qualification for the main round is an open question.