EHF EURO

Battles of the titans to return to EHF EURO final

EHF / Courtney Gahan

26 January 2024, 09:30

The current world, Olympic and European title holders – Denmark, France and Sweden – will all take the court for the Men’s EHF EURO 2024 semi-finals on Friday, along with hosts Germany. With all four nations having won the EHF EURO trophy before, the two semi-final battles will see the sides aiming to return to the final.

Denmark, France and Sweden all played the semi-finals at the EHF EURO 2022, with France leaving empty-handed while Denmark picked up the bronze medal and Sweden raised the trophy. The three teams also played the semi-finals at the 2023 and 2021 World Championships, where the titles were won by Denmark, as well as the EHF EURO 2018, making them clearly some of the most successful national teams in recent years.

Germany last played a semi-final at the co-hosted World Championship in 2019.

SEMI-FINAL

France vs Sweden
Friday 26 January, 17:45 CET, live on EHFTV

this semi-final pits the two teams with the strongest title record at the Men’s EHF EURO against each other for a classic battle that is their 26th overall, and seventh at the EURO
Sweden have won the Men’s EHF EURO trophy five times, including four of the first five editions and in 2022. Current Olympic champions France have taken the title three times, latest in 2014
France have not missed a semi-final in any major championship since the EHF EURO 2020, including two World Championships, the previous edition of the EURO and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
overall, France have participated in 27 semi-finals across the EHF EURO, Olympic Games and World Championship, and have won 15 of them
however, France lost the last two EHF EURO semi-finals they played, including in 2022 to Sweden, ultimately finishing fourth at the previous edition and third in 2018
Sweden have returned to the top of international rankings in recent years, after making it to the medal round at 20 major championships up to 2002
in 2018, Sweden qualified for the EHF EURO final following a 16-year wait and in 2022 they returned to the top of the podium after 20 years
Sweden lost two games so far at the EHF EURO 2024, against Norway and fellow semi-finalists Denmark, while France are the only unbeaten semi-finalists with six wins and a draw to Switzerland
France’s top scorer is right back Dika Mem, with 41 goals, all from the field; Sweden’s is wing Hampus Wanne with 28, including 18 penalties
France’s Nedim Remili has made 43 assists to lead this individual statistic; Sweden’s Felix Claar is joint-fifth with 28

I foresee a game with great defences and goalkeepers, I think Sweden have a great 0-6 defence and they are really fast on fastbreaks as well. Often, when we lost against them, they scored easy goals because we made some technical mistakes, we will try to give them as few as possible tomorrow.

Luka Karabatic

Line player, France

I think that every game is special, but also that we play at a different level than last year. Both teams know each other very well, this will be the fourth semi-final between us. We meet one of the best teams in the word. But we are a very strong team, we believe in ourselves a lot and I’m sure we will have a say in this game.

Glenn Solberg

Head coach, Sweden

We have tested a lot in the last year, players and how to build a new team. We have done that and I’m very satisfied with how they have performed. Up to now, not everything has been perfect but I think we deserve to go to the semi-finals. I’m very pleased with the team up to now and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.

Alfred Gislason

Head coach, Germany

We know it’s going to be difficult, but I strongly believe if we can stay strong in defence and give our goalkeepers an opportunity to be match winners, we have a good chance to be in the final.

Henrik Møllgaard

Line player, Denmark