(Un)informed Handball Hour

With handball well and truly in lockdown, we cast our eye over what those in charge have decided to do, turn momentarily to Belarus for our fix of live action and think about what the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics for one year means for some teams' chances.

We go back in time to 2007 and the infamous World Championship semi-final between Germany and France. We're commentating on the entire match, which you can watch along with us on https://youtu.be/Dw4t0v07pfg.  We start the video (00:00) at 2:24 The second half (38:20) begins at 41:56 Extra-time (1:16:00) begins at 1:19:49  

The Coronavirus has brought a halt to all major handball events for the foreseeable future. What now? We discuss the current situation, whether this season can conclude in a satisfactory way and throw out some ideas on how to end the Champions League season and entertain ourselves in the meantime.

Christian Dissinger gives us some insight into Vardar 's current financial struggles. We take a look back at the VELUX EHF Champions League so far and look forward to the Last 16 with Chris taking on Alex. Could beach handball be an Olympic sport? We do a bit of homework on the recent push from the IHF.

How easy is it to decide the women's handball team of the decade?   We gave it a good go, with the brilliant help of 2013 world silver medallist Jelena Eric, and it wasn't all so straightforward.

Former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler has become an unlikely public enemy number 1 in the handball world after his claim that he could storm to Olympic gold, which drew responses from the likes of Nikola Karabatic, Stefan Kretzschmar and NBA star Luka Doncic. We ended up in the middle of the discussion on Twitter, so we reflect on a crazy week online and speak to USA handball expert John Ryan.

Spain won their second EHF EURO title in a row with a 22:20 win over Croatia on Sunday. We break the game down, hear from key players Gonzalo Perez de Vargas and Viran Morros and hand out our own very special awards.

We brought handball's top Twitter nerd/Champions League player Rasmus Boysen into the studio to react to an unforgettable semi-final night in Stockholm, which saw Croatia and Spain book their spot in the EHF EURO 2020 Final.

On the eve of the EHF EURO 2020 semi-finals, we have a bumper episode. Chris and Alex go at it in a head-to-head debate about which teams will progress to the final. We sat down to have a chat with Hanna Fogelström, ex-Swedish national team player turned TV handball pundit to talk all things Sweden and much more. To wrap up, Croatian EHF EURO 2020 refereeing duo Matija Gubica and Boris Milosevic a...

EHF EURO journalists Courtney Gahan and Adrian Costeiu join the crew, and a live audience of 1, to look forward to the final day of main round matches. We caught up with Norway keeper Torbjorn Bergerud and Alex unleashes his shooting percentage quiz.

Icelandic handball hero Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson sat down with us to talk about having 300,000 national team coaches, teammates younger than his oldest daughter and living with the highs and lows of top-level handball in an honest and open interview. We also discuss Sander Sagosen's milestones, which are eclipsed by his hunt for medals and the biggest matches of the past two days at EHF EURO 2020.

Following Portugal's latest big upset, shocking hosts Sweden on Friday night, we got an immediate and emotional reaction from EHF EURO's Dr. Handball Marcio Menino and right wing Antonio Areia. Slovenia coach Ljubomir Vranjes chats to us about the success he has enjoyed with Slovenia since taking over just a few weeks ago and what it's like to lead his new team at a home championship.

After Hungary's mesmerising second half against Iceland knocked world champs Denmark out at the first hurdle, we spoke to one of their coaches and legendary player Laszlo Nagy about their surprisingly good EHF EURO so far. Alex Kulesh joins the crew and helps us preview an unexpected and wide-open main round.

Spain's perfect start to EHF EURO 2020 has been helped big time by the performances of superb goalkeeper duo Gonzalo Perez de Vargas and Rodrigo Corrales, who spoke to us together about each other's performances and their handball marriage. ehf-euro.com journalist Björn Pazen joined us to explain what's happening to Germany as well as looking at some of the championship's other big stories.

Norwegian handball legend, Kristian Kjelling, and TV3/Viasat commentator, Daniel Høglund, joined the podcast to talk all things Norway, the emergence of this new generation and being hosts of an EHF EURO. Kjelling looked back at his own experience of a home EHF EURO back in 2008 and how Norwegian handball has developed both on and off the court since then. With interesting insight, some old storie...

The Men's EHF EURO 2020 party has started and we take a quick look back at Thursday's opening matches, before looking forward Friday's big clash by speaking some of Portugal's stars and French EHF EURO journalist Kevin Domas

Bobby Schagen and Kay Smits chat to us ahead of the Netherlands' EHF EURO debut against Germany on Thursday, we also break down groups A, B & C and get championship predictions from 10 experts from around the world.

In the first podcast of EHF EURO 2020, we speak to Swedish stars Kim Ekdahl Du Rietz and Mikael Appelgren ahead of their bid to win a home championship and we take a look groups D, E and F.

Let's start the new year with a few disagreements. We had a look back at the last 10 years and put together our men's handball team of the decade.

We're delighted to reveal that we'll be official media partners with the EHF at January's EHF EURO 2020, which means we'll be bringing you podcasts every second day during the championship. We also chat about the conclusion of the Women's World Championship and keep track of how tight it is at the top of the German Bundesliga.

A special guest joins us from Kumamoto to look back at a first week full of drama and surprise results and ahead to the business end of the Women's World Championship 2019!

With the IHF Women's World Championship 2019 beginning on 30 November, we look forward to the event in Japan with France and Györ star Estelle Nze Minko and Romanian journalist Adrian Costeiu. 04:00 - Estelle Nze Minko on France's title defence and her past year 23:50 - Adrian Costeiu joins us to discuss Romania's doping saga 40:00 - Breaking down the four World Championship groups and predictions

We celebrate our 50th episode with a look back at a few of our favourite chats from the past two years, including Kim Ekdahl du Rietz, Veronica and Jeanett Kristiansen, Taip Ramadani, Tom O'Brannagain, Casper Mortensen and Vid Kavticnik. Thank you to everyone who has listened and been a part of the podcast so far, here's to the next 50!

Line Jørgensen joins us to chat about on Team Esbjerg great start to the DELO Women's EHF Champions League season, her time with CSM Bucuresti, injuries and more in a wide-ranging interview. Chris and Brian look back at the first set of rounds in both women's and men's Champions League's, plus Chris and Alex's international tournament with Ireland against the USA and Great Britain this weekend.

Australian beach handball hero Scott Nicholson joins us to chat about the very first ANOC World Beach Games in Doha (43:45) We reflect on worrying times for Veszprem and Ljubomir Vranjes' Kristianstad, plus the happier stories of Aalborg and Porto in the VELUX EHF Champions League (01:15) With so much handball to talk about, we fly through topics such as the opening Women's CL weekend, the challen...