2006 European Men's Handball Championship

The 2006 EHF European Men's Handball Championship was the seventh tournamentof the tournament and held in Switzerland from 26 January to 5 February 2006, in the cities of Basel, Berne, Lucerne, St. Gallen and Zürich. France won the tournament, going through unbeaten after an early defeat to Spain. France's defence conceded the fewest goals per game in the entire tournament, with 192 conceded goals in eight matches. The hosts Switzerland were knocked out at the first group stage, while Denmark finished third and Croatia fourth to qualify directly for the 2007 World Championship, along with France.

This group was played in the Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen . Poland qualified first, winning the first match and then drawing the second against Switzerland despite an equaliser with 15 seconds to go from Pascal Jenny, and two hours later they were joined by Slovenia, who came back from a two-goal deficit in the last ten minutes to beat Ukraine by 33–31. Switzerland and Ukraine thus played off for the last place in the main round, and the Swiss got behind from the start, trailing by 21–14 at half time. Ten minutes into the second half, Ukraine were 28–16 up, before allowing Switzerland somewhat back into it near the end. They still won 37–30, however, qualifying for the second round with zero points. Slovenia beat Poland 33–29 to carry forward four points, while Poland got two.

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