Summary: Tight finishes in Herning, Oslo sees record wins
The Men's EHF EURO 2026 is finally here! After months of build-up and weeks of preparation for the teams, the tournament gets underway with four matches in Herning and Oslo. Follow the live blog for build-up and live match reports throughout the day.
It’s always a pleasure to have the fans singing the anthem and showing the colours. It never gets old, to be honest. It’s a great motivation, you want to play at your best when you play in front of your family. I hope everybody liked what they saw and that we can get the same amount of support for the next games.
It would not be funny if everything was perfect on day one. We played excellent in phases, not so in others. It’s good, we have a lot of new players, some are playing their first international competition with us, we are still learning as a team. I loved what I saw and the energy we put into that first game.
14:30
Here's the stat of the day - discipline. Spain were one of the most disciplined teams at the EHF EURO 2024, incurring only 4.7 penalty minutes on average per game, while Serbia had an average of 10 penalty minutes per game. The Balkan side will have to watch out and not give their opponents tonight those easy chances.
14:00
There's lots of fun and games going on in each team camp before the serious stuff starts later.
13:35
Before the tournament, we profiled five young players we expect to make a splash during the tournament. Two of them - Germany's Marko Grgić, and Spain's Ian Barrufet - are likely to take the court tonight. Grgić is 22, and Barrufet only 21, but they could well play important roles in their teams' chances.
Find out more about Barrufet, Grgić and the other young stars - Portugal's Francisco Costa, Sweden's Nikola Roganović and the Faroe Islands' Óli Mittún - here.
13:10
Make sure you've downloaded the official Home of Handball app before the games start - the app is your one-stop shop to follow the EHF EURO and take part through the Game Hub. There, you can play the match predictor, powered by Gorenje, with the chance of some very nice prizes including tickets for the EHF EURO 2028!
If you win 'The Spin' league, you can even win a signed jersey. Click here to join the league.
The app is available on iOS and Android. Click here for more.
12:45
A match that we are definitely looking forward to tonight is Germany vs Austria. It's become a classic clash in the last few years. The two sides have met at least once in the last three EHF EURO tournaments, with Austria snatching a 22:22 draw in Cologne in the main round two years ago. Since then, they have played three more times, in the Olympic Games and EHF EURO qualifying tournaments, with Germany winning twice and one draw in Austria.
Will tonight be the night Austria finally beat Germany? EHF journalist Björn Pazen caught up with goalkeeper Constantin Möstl and centre back Lukas Hutecek to find out how they are feeling ahead of the game (with bonus adorable pictures thanks to our photographer Eva Manhart).
