Men's competition
After the first day of the competition, seven teams — Denmark, Croatia, Sweden, Germany, Portugal, Hungary and Norway — successfully completed the challenges and secured their ticket for the main round.
Group A
- Four-time European and world champions Croatia and two-time European champions and 2023 bronze medallists Denmark both opened the competition with two wins; the two powerhouses will lock horns in a compelling match to decide the group winner
- Neither Poland nor Malta, who were making their debut, performed as well as expected in the Beach Handball EURO; only one of them can snatch the remaining ticket to the main round
Group B
- Hosts Türkiye were surprisingly close to overcoming Germany, having led in both sets; experience proved to be crucial, with the Germans managing to recover (18:16, 16:20)
- Türkiye and Czechia finished the day without any points and will face each other in a direct battle for the main round; meanwhile, the 2023 silver medallists, Germany and strong contenders, Portugal, are one step closer to achieving their main goal
Group C
- France caused an early morning upset by outsmarting one of the favourites and most successful beach handball nations, Spain (23:18, 20:21, 7:6); however, they were left without two points in the tie against Sweden later in the day
- The Swedes, led by the current top scorer of the men's competition, Petter Brandt, collected two important wins against France and Bulgaria, and hold the top place in their group; the Bulgarians are still without a point in fourth place in the group
Group D
- The defending champions, Hungary, were close to losing two points to Italy, but they showed their best skills in the shootout and beat the Italian team (24:22, 14:20, 10:6)
- Italy and Ukraine will have to give their best in the final match of the preliminary round if they want to proceed through
