– Must be sent – VG

A Serbian player received a positive crowned test upon arrival in Denmark on Thursday. The next day, another case appeared in the squad.

– They broke in with an infected player. And now they have another. I think they should be kicked out of the European Championship, TV 2 expert Bent Svele tells NTB.

Serbia’s opening match against the Netherlands has already been postponed for Thursday night until Saturday. It was scheduled to be played on Friday.

TV 3 pundit and former national team goalkeeper Ole Erevik is in Denmark. He thinks there are reasons to take it easier than Svele expresses.

– Tomorrow (Saturday) they will make a decision after a new test. If it’s positive, it only makes sense to send the team back to the airport. I don’t think the European Handball Federation (EHF) has so many alternatives then. The consequence is less to send them home than to take them to the European Championship bubble, Erevik tells VG.

Not afraid of the crown

Now the new positive crown player and her space friend are isolated. The rest of the team is also isolated and must be crowned on Saturday.

If both players test positive again, Erevik believes it is an unnecessary risk to have Serbia in the European Championship. The TV 3 expert does not experience any fear of the crown in Denmark.

– No, at least not among the representatives of the media that I surround myself with. It also doesn’t balnt the players I’ve talked to. Most of the people want to play the European Championship and think that it is great to play even if this is the situation. The regime here is reasonably reassuring. And the cases in Serbia can now be a kind of proof that the guidelines work, Erevik tells VG.

The rules during the European Championships mean that players and coaches who show a negative test are released from isolation. “To keep the players safe, the infection control protocol is followed to the letter,” the EHF announced Friday morning.

EHF fears that the infection outbreaks could create problems for the implementation of the matches and present challenges related to the events.

The postponement of Serbia-Netherlands means that these teams will play on both Saturday and Sunday. It’s a burden that neither the players nor the coaches appreciate. There are not many days off to which games can be transferred. The new case in the Serbian squad creates a small crisis for the organizer.

– Of course we are nervous, Danish handball president Per Bertelsen told the Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

That was before Serbia got another positive test.

The director of the Norwegian national team, Thorir Hergeirsson, said just before the European Championship that he was “very excited” about how it would go in terms of infection in the teams.

– I think everyone is excited about this. Now it looks like if we have a good week on this then it feels safe. The biggest risk is probably the days when all the teams arrive. So yeah, I’m a little excited, but I’m still pretty calm about it. That’s also the only thing I can do, national team captain Stine Bredal Oftedal told NTB.

Nora Mørk impressed in the comeback when Norway beat Poland on Thursday:

Hungary and Croatia are the other two nations in Group C. They play in the same city (Kolding) as Norway. The teams also stay in the same hotel.

Moved party

The rest of the squad in Serbia had negative tests on Thursday, but must sit in the hotel room until they show another negative round.

The Serbs’ game against the Netherlands would be played on Friday, has been postponed for 24 hours and is now going as planned on Saturday night.

The Serbian squad will also be crowned again on Saturday morning.

Earlier in the European Championship, there was a positive test case in a Romanian player. It remains isolated as the rest of the team played Germany on Thursday and lost 19-22.