Is Denmark the first team with 0 points from the preliminary round, to qualify for the semifinals?

In 2002 the European Championship in handball changed format. Instead of 12 teams, 16 teams where participating, and a second group stage was introduced, the main round.

Since then, 18 teams on the men’s side and 14 teams on the women’s side, have entered the main round with 0 points. A total of 32 teams have entered the main round with 0 points, but only once has a team which entered the main round with 0 points qualified for the semifinals. It happened yesterday, when Denmark defeated Sweden and finished the main round in second place with 6 points.

 

But collecting 6 points in the main round is no guarantee for qualifying to the semifinals, a lot of other results also need to go your way. In 2010 the France women’s team also accomplished to collect 6 points in the main round after entering with 0 points, but they finished 3rd in the group.
 

Then what about entering main round with 1 point? Well here you go:

Not much better as we see, but Germany actually won the tournament in 2004 after entering main round with only 1 point, and in 2006 Germany tried to replicate the accomplishment from two years before, but without luck. The 7 points wasn’t enough to qualify for the semifinals that year. Source http://www.eurohandball.com/.