Bad news for the Swiss handball team ahead of the first match of the European Championship qualifiers: Bundesliga star Andy Schmid (33) will be missing for Switzerland in Velenje against the Slovenians. But the fans can hope: On Saturday in Zurich's Hallenstadion against European champions Germany, Super-Andy should be back.
Schmid is suffering from a viral infection and is at home in bed with a fever. Coach Michael Suter's young Swiss team will therefore be without their experienced director for their first serious match. As Lenny Rubin and Nicolas Raemy are also injured, the entire back line is out.
But coach Suter trusts his youngsters: "We've always played without Andy in preparation. And our team worked just as well."
Either way, the Slovenians are a tough opponent. At the Olympics in Rio, they were only beaten by bronze medal winners Germany in the group matches and by Olympic champions Denmark in the quarter-finals.
8,000 tickets sold - the last step towards the record
Another record has been broken for the big European Championship qualifier at home against European champions Germany next Saturday (17:45, live on SRF zwei): The 8,000th ticket for the match in the Hallenstadion was sold over the weekend. This means that less than 1,000 fans are needed to break the record set in 1986.
MEN'S HANDBALL EM QUALIFIER
Sat, 5.11.16, Hallenstadion Zurich
TICKETS
