MOSCOW, January 18, Oleg Bogatov. Many handball players of the Russian national team have extensive experience international meetings, and with a well-built game, the team can compete on equal terms with opponents at the European Championship, said the former head coach of the national team Vladimir Maksimov. On Monday, the Russians defeated the Slovaks with a score of 36:27 and advanced to the next stage of the tournament from the first place in group F taking place in Hungary and Slovakia. The Norwegians made their way from the second position, the teams of Poland, Spain, Germany and Sweden will also compete with the Russian team. The national teams retained the points scored in the matches against the teams that left the group in the preliminary round. The main round starts on January 20. Two teams from each group will reach the semi-finals. «I believe that with a competent game and with the existing selection of handball players, all rivals in the group are tough for us,» Maksimov said. «After all, many guys have sufficient experience of playing in foreign clubs and European tournaments and can fight on equal terms with opponents.And the team has got anger that will help the players to win.We already have two points, and we have an advantage over those (three) teams that came out from second place (no points scored).So now everything depends on us.»
