2006 European Men's Handball Championship
| Handball-Europameisterschaft 2006 (German) Championnat d'Europe de handball 2006 (French) Campionato europeo di pallamano 2006 (Italian) |
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| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country |
 Switzerland
|
| Dates | 26 January–5 February |
| Teams | 16 (from 1 confederation) |
| Venue(s) | 5 (in 5 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 France (1st title)
|
| Runner-up |
 Spain
|
| Third place |
 Denmark
|
| Fourth place |
 Croatia
|
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches | 47 |
| Goals scored | 2784 (59.23 per match) |
| Attendance | 182,600 (3,885 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
 Siarhei Rutenka (SLO) (51 goals) |
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The 2006 EHF European Men's Handball Championship (7th tournament) was held in Switzerland from 26 January–5 February, in the cities of Basel, Berne, Lucerne, St. Gallen and Zürich. France won the tournament, going through unbeaten after an early defeat to Spain (where they trailed by eight goals at half-time). France and Spain met again in the final, but this time France prevailed by eight goals. France's defence conceded the least 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 (capacity: 4,500). 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.
The matches in this group were played in St. Jakobshalle, Basel (capacity 8,500). Germany became the first team to qualify, drawing their first match with Spain before overcoming Slovakia (who ended up by conceding 100 goals, the most in the group stage) in their second game. Spain followed soon after, beating France by 29–26 after a 17–9 lead at half time, but the French were also through as they would be ahead of Slovakia on head-to-head if the two were to end on two points each. Thus, their last match with Germany only determined how many points they would carry forward to the main round; France risked going through with nil, but after prevailing 27–25 they finished the group in second place and took two points.
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