Men’s Handball Team Qualifies for Paris Olympics

The dream has come true for the Hungarian men’s national handball team, as they qualified for the Paris Olympics after a tremendous battle and an amazing run to beat Portugal 30-27 in the final match of the qualification tournament, reports Nemzeti Sport.

The Hungarian and Portuguese national teams faced each other for the last Olympic quota in the second meeting of the qualification tournament in Tatabánya (northwestern Hungary), which was also the last European Olympic qualification match, as eleven teams had already qualified for Paris.

After just two minutes of play, the Hungarian team had a man advantage. In addition, they started the match in a composed manner, and did not miss a shot in the first fourteen minutes, scoring nine times. Not even fifteen minutes into the match, head coach Chema Rodríguez changed goalkeeper: Roland Mikler was replaced by László Bartucz, who immediately had three saves. The Hungarian handball team started to stall in the closing stages of the first half, and just before the break, the Portuguese equalized. Rodríguez called for a time-out, but it did not help, as Rui Silva’s score gave Portugal the lead for the first time in the match.

However, fortunately, the momentum came too late and the half-time score was 16-16.

Hungarian injuries followed one after the other at the start of the second half, and the Portuguese took the lead with three goals.

With a quarter of an hour to go, Hungary equalized again with a goal from Gergő Fazekas. After that, the team was on fire, and they had the lead again. Bence Imre, who was voted the best player of the game, proved to be the man of the match, scoring five times in eight minutes. In the final minutes, the Portuguese switched to full-court defense, but it did not help.

The Hungarian team won 30-27, and the players were laughing and crying as they secured the last quota for the Paris Olympics.

The Hungarian men’s team has competed in the Olympics eight times – most recently 12 years ago in London – with the best results being fourth place in 1936, 1980, 1988, 2004, and 2012.

Participants in the men’s handball tournament at the Paris Olympics in 2024: Argentina, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Via Nemzeti Sport; Featured image via MTI/Bodnár Boglárka