England Deaf head coach, Paul Harrison, is relishing a first taste of European competition this weekend, describing his side’s trip to Oslo for three European Championship qualifiers as “an adventure”.
Watch England Deaf play their partially sighted counterparts
England will face Norway, Russia and France over two days of games as they look to book their place at November’s finals in Bulgaria.
With only the top two teams progressing, Harrison is hopeful of qualification but is expecting a stern test from some stiff competition.
“Obviously we want to get out of the group and that will depend on us and the quality of the opposition but we will do our best,” he said.
“We are playing Russia who are the second-best team in the world and the best team in Europe, so if we can put up a performance up against them, then great.”
“France are an unknown quantity, as are we, and Norway have got a bit more history.
Harrison believes England's relative newness to the scene will work to their advantage.
“We don’t know too much about the opposition but they don’t know too much about us either.
“We have got to get out of the group which is the top two, so it is very much into the unknown and we can only control the controllables and we will do our best to cope with the things thrown at us.”
England will play three games at Oslo’s Oppsal Arena
Saturday 22 Feb - 12pm (11am GMT) - England v Norway
Saturday 22 Feb - 5pm (4pm GMT) - England v Russia
