Live blog: Portugal claim historic best finish
Semi-finals day at the Men's EHF EURO 2026 is finally here and the four teams still in the running for the coveted trophy will meet at the Jyske Bank Boxen this evening to play for a place in the final.
For us it’s important to win today, because if we win we make history today, we make the most important classification in Europe for us. We need to play good, we need to defend. Sweden it’s a good team, they have good players, so it’s going to be a good fight and a good game.
Like always we are a team that would like to run a lot in the contra-attacks, and use the whole team and use the whole court, so that for sure will be a theme today as well. We have been very strong in attack with the contra-attacks also very good. Our problem, if I’m going to search for something, is the defence. That needs to improve a little bit.
14:30
Here's some of the key facts about the semi-finals, coming up at 17:45 and 20:30 CET:
- it is the 10th EHF EURO semi-final participation for Croatia, who were finalists in 2008, 2010 and 2020, but never won gold; for Germany it is the seventh EHF EURO semi-final and they won the trophy in 2004 and 2016
- Croatia and Germany have met six times at EHF EURO events, with five wins for the Croatians (including in the 2024 main round in Cologne) and only one for Germany, in 2002
- head coaches Alfred Gislason (Germany) and Dagur Sigurdsson (Croatia) are both Icelandic – and even played together for the national team
- ahead of the EHF EURO, Germany beat Croatia 32:29 and 33:27 in test matches in Zagreb and Hanover, respectively
- Sigurdsson steered Germany to their second and last EHF EURO trophy in 2016 and three players from that team are still in the squad: Andreas Wolff, Jannick Kohlbacher and Rune Dahmke
- Iceland have not played a EHF EURO semi-final since 2010, when they lost against France in Vienna (28:36)
- Denmark and Iceland have the most prolific goalkeepers in the competition: Denmark’s Emil Nielsen is first with 69 saves (31.9 per cent), Iceland’s Viktor Hallgrímsson is second with 66 (27.6 per cent)
- Denmark and Iceland last faced each other in international competitions at the EHF EURO 2022, where Denmark took the points in the preliminary round (28:24)
- Denmark already played 10 times in the EHF EURO semi-final and won the competition twice, Iceland only played twice in the semi-final
14:15
Sweden have helpfully put together some of the head-to-head statistics between themselves and Portugal. In official matches, the score is one win for Portugal, one draw and seven victories to Sweden. Portugal finished better at last year's World Championship (fourth, with Sweden 14th), but Sweden won bronze at the EHF EURO 2024 when Portugal were seventh. Portugal's best finish in eight previous EHF EURO participations was sixth, so they've matched that - can they go one step better today?
In the tournament so far, Portugal have beaten Spain, Denmark and Romania; drawn with North Macedonia and Norway; and lost to France and Germany. Sweden beat the Netherlands, Georgia, Croatia, Slovenia and Switzerland, drew with Hungary, and lost to Iceland.
Throw-off is at 15:00 CET!
14:00
We're now an hour from throw-off for the 5/6 placement match, but the stat of the day looks ahead to the semi-finals. Julian Rux says: "The two semi-finals will see similar playing philosophies clash, but in two different ways. Germany and Croatia are the two teams that, among those that made it to the main round, score from the greatest average distance in positional attack, with 7.4 and 7.1 metres, while Denmark and Iceland have the shortest throwing distance, with 6.4 and 6 metres."
Those differences will certainly impact how the games play out; how each coach deploys his defence; and how effective the goalkeepers will end up being.
13:40
The referee nominations for today are out:
Icelanders Jonas Eliasson and Anton Pálsson will take charge of the 5/6 placement match. Bojan Lah and David Sok of Slovenia are whistling the first semi-final, between Germany and Croatia; Norway's Lars Jorum and Håvard Kleven are refereeing Denmark versus Iceland.
13:00
With two hours until the 5/6 placement match between Portugal and Sweden throws off to start the final weekend, check out the recap of the main round and how they, and the four semi-finalists, reached this stage of the tournament. It was a main round to remember!
12:40
Don't forget to vote for the All-star Team - votes are open until midnight on Saturday night, but you can make your selection now - just download or open the Home of Handball app, and go from there! There's six players in each position, plus best defender and best young player, to pick from.
