Group A

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, 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.

More information Pos, Team ...

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Slovenia	3	3	0	0	95	85	+10	6
2	Poland	3	1	1	1	93	88	+5	3
3	Ukraine	3	1	0	2	92	96	−4	2
4	Switzerland (H)	3	0	1	2	86	97	−11	1

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26 January 2006 17:30	Poland	33–24	Ukraine	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 3,000 Referees: Višekruna, Stanojević (SRB)
	Bielecki 8	(19–13)	Shelmenko, Stetsyura 7
	3× 2×	Report	3× 1×

26 January 2006 20:15	Slovenia	29–25	Switzerland	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 3,500 Referees: Kékes, Kékes (HUN)
	Rutenka 7	(16–13)	Gautschi 7
	3× 4×	Report	2× 4×

28 January 2006 16:15	Switzerland	31–31	Poland	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 3,500 Referees: Arnaldsson, Viðarsson (ISL)
	Engeler 9	(16–17)	Obrusiewicz 6
	4× 3×	Report	3× 4×

28 January 2006 18:30	Ukraine	31–33	Slovenia	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 2,800 Referees: Dolejš, Kohout (CZE)
	Prudius 7	(17–16)	Rutenka 9
	3× 11× 1×	Report	3× 8×

29 January 2006 14:00	Slovenia	33–29	Poland	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 2,800 Referees: Hansson, Olsson (SWE)
	Rutenka 10	(16–10)	Bielecki 9
	3× 6×	Report	2× 6×

29 January 2006 16:15	Switzerland	30–37	Ukraine	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 3,500 Referees: Laursen, Nielsen (DEN)
	Engeler, Kurth 6	(14–21)	three players 7
	3× 3×	Report	3× 4×

Group B

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.

More information Pos, Team ...

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Spain	3	2	1	0	94	82	+12	5
2	France	3	2	0	1	88	75	+13	4
3	Germany	3	1	1	1	87	84	+3	3
4	Slovakia	3	0	0	3	72	100	−28	0

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26 January 2006 15:45	Germany	31–31	Spain	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 5,900 Referees: Laursen, Nielsen (DEN)
	Hens 9	(16–15)	three players 6
	4× 5×	Report	2× 2×

26 January 2006 18:00	France	35–21	Slovakia	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 4,800 Referees: Arnaldsson, Viðarsson (ISL)
	Abati 6	(19–9)	three players
	3× 2×	Report	3× 4×

28 January 2006 14:00	Slovakia	26–31	Germany	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 6,300 Referees: Višekruna, Stanojević (SRB)
	Antl 6	(15–18)	Klimovets 7
	3× 3×	Report	3× 6×

28 January 2006 16:15	Spain	29–26	France	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 5,900 Referees: Kékes, Kékes (HUN)
	Romero 10	(17–9)	Karabatić 10
	3× 3×	Report	4× 2×

29 January 2006 15:15	Germany	25–27	France	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 6,600 Referees: Dolejš, Kohout (CZE)
	Klimovets 6	(11–13)	Guigou 6
	2× 4×	Report	3× 4×

29 January 2006 17:30	Spain	34–25	Slovakia	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 5,450 Referees: Reisinger, Kaschütz (AUT)
	Garabaya 8	(15–10)	Straňovský 9
	2× 5× 1×	Report	3× 6×

Group C

The matches in this group were held in the Sursee Stadthalle in Sursee/Lucerne. Denmark and Iceland opened with wins, and with a draw in the second round both teams qualified for the main round. Serbia and Montenegro joined them due to the head-to-head encounter rule; despite finishing level on points with Hungary after losing to Denmark in the last match, Serbia and Montenegro had beaten Hungary and thus finished ahead. Iceland lost their last match, but nevertheless carried through three points to the main round, as did Denmark.

More information Pos, Team ...

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Denmark	3	2	1	0	90	82	+8	5
2	Iceland	3	1	1	1	95	94	+1	3
3	Serbia and Montenegro	3	1	0	2	89	93	−4	2
4	Hungary	3	1	0	2	84	89	−5	2

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26 January 2006 18:00	Serbia and Montenegro	31–36	Iceland	Stadthalle, Sursee Attendance: 2,500 Referees: Falcone, Rätz (SUI)
	Krivokapić 7	(11–16)	Sigurðsson 10
	4× 9×	Report	3× 6×

26 January 2006 20:15	Denmark	29–25	Hungary	Stadthalle, Sursee Attendance: 2,500 Referees: Vakula, Ljudovik (UKR)
	Boldsen 6	(12–8)	Buday 9
	3× 5×	Report	3× 3×

27 January 2006 18:00	Hungary	24–29	Serbia and Montenegro	Stadthalle, Sursee Attendance: 2,500 Referees: Hansson, Olsson (SWE)
	Iváncsik 6	(12–13)	Milosavljević 8
	2× 5× 1×	Report	3× 9×

27 January 2006 20:15	Iceland	28–28	Denmark	Stadthalle, Sursee Attendance: 2,500 Referees: Lemme, Ullrich (GER)
	Guðjónsson 10	(15–14)	Boldsen, Leegård 6
	4× 4×	Report	4× 4×

29 January 2006 18:00	Hungary	35–31	Iceland	Stadthalle, Sursee Attendance: 2,400 Referees: Bord, Buy (FRA)
	Buday, Gál 9	(16–14)	Guðjónsson 10
	3× 3×	Report	3× 5×

29 January 2006 20:15	Denmark	33–29	Serbia and Montenegro	Stadthalle, Sursee Attendance: 2,500 Referees: Breto, Huelin (ESP)
	Stryger 9	(19–12)	Sudžum 5
	2× 6×	Report	4× 8×

Group D

This group was played out in the Wankdorfhalle, Bern. Russia became the first team to qualify for the main round when they beat Portugal on 27 January. Croatia joined them later that day with a 32–28 win over Norway, and Norway and Portugal played off for the last main round spot on Sunday 29 January. Norway won that match by ten goals, thus proceeding to the main round with zero points; Russia got a full score with four points, despite nearly throwing away a five-goal lead in the last five minutes against Croatia.

More information Pos, Team ...

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Russia	3	3	0	0	89	82	+7	6
2	Croatia	3	2	0	1	85	79	+6	4
3	Norway	3	1	0	2	86	83	+3	2
4	Portugal	3	0	0	3	80	96	−16	0

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26 January 2006 17:00	Croatia	24–21	Portugal	Wankdorfhalle, Bern Attendance: 2,000 Referees: Reisinger, Kaschütz (AUT)
	Džomba 8	(11–11)	R. Costa 6
	3× 5×	Report	4× 6×

26 January 2006 19:10	Russia	24–21	Norway	Wankdorfhalle, Bern Attendance: 2,000 Referees: Breto, Huelin (ESP)
	Ivanov 7	(12–10)	Buchmann 7
	2× 7×	Report	3× 9× 1×

27 January 2006 18:00	Portugal	32–35	Russia	Wankdorfhalle, Bern Attendance: 2,400 Referees: Falcone, Rätz (SUI)
	R. Costa 6	(12–18)	Kokcharov, Peskov 6
	4× 5×	Report	4× 7×

27 January 2006 20:15	Norway	28–32	Croatia	Wankdorfhalle, Bern Attendance: 2,500 Referees: Bord, Buy (FRA)
	Kjelling 6	(14–20)	Balić 8
	4× 6×	Report	2× 4×

29 January 2006 17:00	Croatia	29–30	Russia	Wankdorfhalle, Bern Attendance: 2,500 Referees: Lemme, Ullrich (GER)
	Balić 9	(12–17)	Rastvortsev 10
	3× 5×	Report	3× 6×

29 January 2006 19:10	Portugal	27–37	Norway	Wankdorfhalle, Bern Attendance: 2,000 Referees: Ljudovik, Vakula (UKR)
	Carneiro 7	(12–17)	Løke 8
	3× 5×	Report	4× 5×

Group I

The matches in this group were played in St. Jakobshalle, Basel. Slovenia had gone through their group with four points from their two matches, but lost initially to France, who were second after two matches. Indeed, Group B teams dominated this group; all nine matches in the second round were won by teams from Group B, and Germany's 36–22 win over Ukraine in the first round of main round play was the largest all tournament. Ukraine were thus knocked out of the semis with two games to play.

Germany continued on the winning path the following day, taking a four-goal lead at half-time against Slovenia in a rerun of the 2004 final, before Slovenia pegged them back to 27–27 midway through the second half. The following nine minutes gave the Germans a five-goal advantage, with keeper Henning Fritz conceding one goal in those nine minutes, and with five minutes to spare Slovenia could only come back to a three-goal deficit. Nevertheless, Germany were still third in the group, as France beat Poland by ten goals and Spain were eventually pegged back to 31–29 by Ukraine after conceding five goals without reply in the last seven minutes. However, Ukraine missed a penalty shot from and Spain prevailed.

The final round of matches opened with Germany beating Poland by eight goals, winning the first half by 16–7 and controlling from there, as their keeper Johannes Bitter saved 21 shots. By contrast, the two Polish keepers had an aggregate of six saves. However, Germany needed either France or Spain to lose their matches, and France would not oblige; they beat Ukraine by 30–20 to qualify for the semi-finals. Spain needed a draw against Slovenia to qualify, and the teams were within two goals of each other for most of the first half. The Spanish goalkeeper made four saves in the final five minutes of the first half, allowing Spain to get a 19–16 lead, and Slovenia never came closer than two goals after that. Spain thus qualified for the semi-finals in first place, ahead of France, while Germany played off for fifth place and a spot at the 2008 European Championship.

More information Team, Pld ...

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Spain	5	4	1	0	164	144	+20	9
France	5	4	0	1	148	125	+23	8
Germany	5	3	1	1	160	137	+23	7
Slovenia	5	2	0	3	162	169	−7	4
Poland	5	1	0	4	132	154	−22	2
Ukraine	5	0	0	5	126	163	−37	0

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31 January 2006 15:15	Ukraine	22–36	Germany	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 2000
	Sergiy Shelmenko 5 Yuriy Petrenko 5 (1)	(13–15)	Florian Kehrmann 9 (1) Pascal Hens 5
	3× 4×	report	2× 4×

31 January 2006 17:30	Slovenia	30–34	France	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 1900
	Miladin Kozlina 8 Siarhei Rutenka 6 (1)	(11–20)	Luc Abalo 8 Joel Abati 5 Nikola Karabatic 5 Bertrand Gille 5
	3× 5× 1×	report	3× 3×

31 January 2006 20:00	Poland	25–34	Spain	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 1800
	Marcin Lijewski 5 Karol Bielecki 5 (1)	(15–16)	Albert Rocas 11 (5) Alberto Entrerríos 7 Rolando Urios 5
	3× 5×	report	3× 3×

1 February 2006 15:15	Slovenia	33–36	Germany	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 3100
	Siarhei Rutenka 10 (5) Renato Vugrinec 7	(16–20)	Christian Zeitz 8 Torsten Jansen 7 (1) Florian Kehrmann 7
	2× 3× 1×	report	2× 7×

1 February 2006 17:45	Poland	21–31	France	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 3000
	Marcin Lijewski 7 (2 pen) Dawid Nilsson 6	(9–18)	Olivier Girault 7 (2) Luc Abalo 5
	3× 1×	report	3× 1×

1 February 2006 20:00	Ukraine	25–34	Spain	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 1800
	Sergiy Shel'menko 5 Mykola Stesyura 5	(15–16)	Juan García [es] 10 (4) Julio Fis 6
	3× 5×	report	3× 3×

2 February 2006 15:15	Poland	24–32	Germany	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 3100
	Karol Bielecki 8 (4 pen) Leszek Starczan 5	(7–16)	Florian Kehrmann 9 (1) Torsten Jansen 6 Pascal Hens 5
	3× 2×	report	3× 2×

2 February 2006 17:45	Ukraine	20–30	France	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 3000
	four players 3	(10–16)	Joel Abati 7 (2) Michael Guigou 5
	3× 4×	report	3× 4×

2 February 2006 20:00	Slovenia	33–39	Spain	St. Jakobshalle, Basel Attendance: 3100
	Siarhei Rutenka 9 (2) Uroš Zorman 5	(16–19)	Alberto Entrerríos 8 Rolando Urios 8 Albert Rocas 6 (1) Iker Romero 6
	3× 6×	report	3× 5×

Group II

This group's matches took place in the Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen.

Iceland took an early lead in this group after beating Russia 34–32 in the first match, which sent Russia down from first to third place. Croatia went second in the group after beating Denmark, left winger Goran Šprem settling the match when he scored two seconds before the end, while Norway were the only team without a point in this group after losing their match with Serbia and Montenegro. With 25 seconds remaining, Kristian Kjelling scored a penalty to equalise, but Milorad Krivokapić scored his only goal of the match just as the buzzer sounded to give Serbia and Montenegro the victory.

Russia quickly recovered from the loss against Iceland, with their keeper Alexei Kostygov saving 14 of 34 shots as Serbia/Montenegro were beaten 29–21, and went top of the table ahead of Croatia – who beat Iceland by one goal, though Iceland's last two goals came in the very last minute. In the last match on 1 February, Denmark kept their semi-final hopes alive with a 35–31 win over Norway, to stay within one point of the leaders.

The following day saw Croatia become the first team to qualify for the semi-finals when they beat Serbia and Montenegro by 34–30; the teams followed each other until 20–20 ten minutes into the second half, when wingers Goran Šprem and Mirza Džomba scored five of six successive Croatian goals. Goalkeeper Vlado Šola saved 19 of 43 shots from Serbian players. Iceland needed a win against Norway, who had failed to win a match thus far in the tournament, and led 16–14 at half time after Norway threw away the ball on their last attack of the half and Iceland countered in a last goal. Norway came back, equalising eight minutes into the second half, and with ten minutes to go they took a three-goal lead which they never relinquished, eventually winning 36–33 to knock Iceland out of the championship. Norwegian back player Kjetil Strand scored 19 goals in the match, eight more than any other player had done in a match thus far in the tournament, and more than half of Norway's goals.

The final match between Russia and Denmark was now a virtual quarter-final. Russia gained a 6–3 lead after ten minutes, but were pegged back, and by the end of the half it was 13–13. In the second half, Russia suffered three two-minute suspensions within a minute, and during the three-minute period of Danish numerical superiority they went from 19–17 to 22–17. The lead never shrunk below five goals again, Denmark eventually scoring 22 goals in the second half to win 35–28 and qualify for the semi-finals in second place.

More information Team, Pld ...

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Croatia	5	4	0	1	155	146	+9	8
Denmark	5	3	1	1	161	147	+14	7
Russia	5	3	0	2	143	140	+3	6
Iceland	5	2	1	2	159	156	+3	5
Serbia and Montenegro	5	1	0	4	137	157	−20	2
Norway	5	1	0	4	141	150	−9	2

Close

31 January 2006 15:45	Iceland	34–32	Russia	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 2200
	Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson 11 Ólafur Stefánsson 8	(17–15)	Eduard Kokcharov 8 (4) Vasily Filippov 7 Oleg Frolov 5
	3× 4×	report	2× 6×

31 January 2006 18:00	Denmark	30–31	Croatia	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 3000
	Søren Stryger 8 (3) Joachim Boldsen 6	(14–15)	Petar Metličić 10 Blaženko Lacković 6
	2× 6×	report	2× 4×

31 January 2006 20:15	Serbia and Montenegro	26–25	Norway	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 2900
	Ratko Nikolić 6	(15–16)	Kjetil Strand 9 Kristian Kjelling 5 (2)
	3× 5×	report	4× 5×

1 February 2006 15:45	Serbia and Montenegro	21–29	Russia	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 2800
		(8–14)	Denis Krivoshlykov 8 Timur Dibirov 5
	3× 4×	report	3× 5×

1 February 2006 18:00	Iceland	28–29	Croatia	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 3500
	Ólafur Stefánsson 8 Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson 8	(13–13)	Ivano Balić 9 Blaženko Lacković 9
	3× 6×	report	3× 11× 2×

1 February 2006 20:15	Denmark	35–31	Norway	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 3000
	Jesper Jensen 8 (5) Lars Rasmussen 7 (4)	(17–15)	Kristian Kjelling 9 Håvard Tvedten 7 Frank Løke 6
	3× 6× 1×	report	3× 9×

2 February 2006 15:45	Serbia and Montenegro	30–34	Croatia	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 3500
	Marko Krivokapić 7 (4) Milorad Krivokapić 5 Momir Ilić 5 (2)	(16–16)	Goran Šprem 9 Ivano Balić 8
	3× 7× 2×	report	3× 5× 1×

2 February 2006 18:00	Iceland	33–36	Norway	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 3500
	Ólafur Stefánsson 9 (4) Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson 6 Snorri Guðjónsson 5	(16–14)	Kjetil Strand 19 (8) Frank Løke 7
	3× 7× 1×	report	3× 7×

2 February 2006 20:15	Denmark	35–28	Russia	Kreuzbleichhalle, St. Gallen Attendance: 3500
	Michael Knudsen 10 Søren Stryger 6 Lars Christiansen 5 (1)	(13–13)	Vasily Filippov 6 Vitaly Ivanov 5 Eduard Kokcharov 5 (5)
	2× 5×	report	3× 6×

Bracket

	Semi-finals				Final
	4 February – 14:15 (Zürich)
	France	29
					5 February – 16:00 (Zürich)
	Croatia	23
					France	31
	4 February – 17:00 (Zürich)
					Spain	23
	Spain	34
	Denmark	31
					Bronze Match
					5 February – 13:30 (Zürich)
					Croatia	27
					Denmark	32

Semifinals

4 February 2006 14:15	France	29–23	Croatia	Hallenstadion, Zürich Attendance: 11300
	Michael Guigou 10 (6) Jerome Fernandez 5 Bertrand Gille 5	(12–10)	Mirza Džomba 10 (5)
	3× 6×	Report	3× 5×

4 February 2006 17:00	Spain	34–31	Denmark	Hallenstadion, Zürich Attendance: 10800
	Iker Romero 10 (1) Rolando Urios 5 Albert Rocas 5 (3)	(15–16)	Michael Knudsen 7
	2× 1×	Report	3× 2×

Fifth place game

4 February 2006 11:45	Germany	32–30	Russia	Hallenstadion, Zürich Attendance: 6500
	Christian Zeitz 12 Pascal Hens 10	(16–18)	Eduard Kokcharov 10 (7) Oleg Frolov 7
	3× 7×	report	3× 5× 1×

Third place game

5 February 2006 13:30	Denmark	32–27	Croatia	Hallenstadion, Zürich Attendance: 11000
	Lars Møller Madsen 9 Jesper Jensen 5 Søren Stryger 5 (1)	(16–9)	Blaženko Lacković 6 Mirza Džomba 6 (4) Denis Špoljarić 5
	2× 5×	report	3× 3×

Final

5 February 2006 16:00	Spain	23–31	France	Hallenstadion, Zürich Attendance: 11400
	Juanín García 6	(13–17)	Nikola Karabatic 11 Joel Abati 6
	3× 3×	report	3× 3× 1×