Slovenia and France snatch Men's 20 EHF EURO quarter-final tickets

Every goal counted in three main round groups, as first and second-placed teams and the two best third-ranked teams stay in the race for the shiny silverware. The quarter-finals are scheduled for Thursday, 16 July at 16:00 and 18:30 CEST. 

The eight quarter-finalists already booked their place for the 26th IHF Men's Junior (U21) World Championship in 2027, held in North Macedonia next summer. Seven remaining spots will be confirmed with the conclusion of the cross matches, as there are 15 places in total up for grabs. 

GROUP I

1. Germany, 2. Switzerland, 3. France, 4. Faroe Islands

• Germany enters the quarter-finals undefeated, after two wins in the main round. A narrow 32:30 win against Switzerland and a more convincing celebration, 34:30 against the Faroe Islands, kept them on top of group I
• Germany's win against Switzerland placed Petr Hrachovec's team in second place in the group, but still in the running for the medal as they closed the main round with a three-goal win against France 
• The race for the top scorer continues with familiar names — Swiss centre back Tiago Cuenca, the top scorer of the preliminary round with 31 goals, is now 12 goals behind Latvia's right back Valdis Kalninis, who netted 61 times
• Next to the first and second-ranked teams in each group, the two best third-placed teams, France in group I and Slovenia in group III, booked the quarter-finals based on a better goal difference than Croatia, which was the third-ranked team in group II 

GROUP II

1. Spain, 2. Denmark, 3. Croatia, 4. Iceland

• A nerve-racking group II saw Croatia, Spain and Denmark battling it out for direct qualification to the quarter-finals when Croatia managed to upset defending champions Spain in the last 10 minutes of the match. Their 25:25 equaliser eight minutes before the end put the Spanish defence on alert, which was the push they needed to win 29:26 and keep a clean sheet ahead of the knockout stages
• Due to Spain's win against both Denmark and Croatia, the Danish team stayed in second position in the group with four points; earlier in the day, they won the "Scandinavian derby" against Iceland with 31:29 
• Nikolaj Jakobsen, the head coach of the senior national team of Denmark, current European, world and Olympic champions, was following the match from the stands in Turda
• Croatia is now out of medal contention, due to a better goal difference of France and Slovenia among the third-ranked teams

GROUP III

1. Sweden, 2. Hungary, 3. Slovenia, 4. Romania

• Sweden is the third team with a clean sheet after five matches played. A convincing 40:24 win against Hungary and a narrow 33:32 celebration against Slovenia put them on top of the table. Their centre back, Liam Hultberg, continues to orchestrate the attack and leads the Swedish scorer chart with 28 goals
• Hungary sealed their quarter-final deal with a 41:28 win against Romania, after Slovenia lost against Sweden; their triumph was celebrated by the Hungarian legend Laszlo Nagy, who was following the match from the stands in Cluj-Napoca
• Slovenia, which suffered a defeat against Hungary in the preliminary round and against Sweden in the main round, delivered one of the highest-scoring games in the competition's history and the highest-scoring match in the 2026 edition with their 53:32 win against Romania. Behind them is Switzerland, which scored 50 goals against Türkiye in the preliminary round

Experience awarding the youth 

A special moment on the court happened right after Spain booked their quarter-final ticket in Turda: Luka Stepancic, a former right back of the Croatian national team, awarded the Player of the Match awards to Spain's line player Guido Bayo Giraudo and Croatia's left back Matko Moslavac. Stepancic was the Player of the Match himself at the Men's EHF EURO 2020, when Croatia took home the silver medal. They will meet again on Wednesday, 15 July, at the Respect Your Talent Player of the Match event, an EHF project in which Stepancic has been the ambassador since 2023. 

Main image: Simion Sebastian Tataru / FRH