Wolffs at the door: the goalkeepers shining at the EHF EURO

Wolff made 22 saves against Norway — 44 per cent of all shots. His performance almost eclipsed the extremely solid show by Norway’s Torbjørn Bergerud at the other end; Bergerud had saved 40 per cent of Germany’s shots at half-time and finished with 10 saves (31 per cent).

“We can thank Andi for these two points. He had a tremendous, incredible game,” admitted Germany head coach Alfred Gislason after their third consecutive win. “Andi saved us, without a doubt.”

Their opponents were also impressed. Norwegian centre back Tobias Grøndahl said: “Andi Wolff played an incredible match today. We know he is good, but it is annoying how we failed against him.”

The result, and Wolff’s performance, makes him the standout number one goalkeeper of the tournament so far.

But Wolff and Bergerud were not the only goalkeepers shining on Saturday night at the Jyske Bank Boxen. In the previous match, Emil Nielsen was again Denmark’s hero in the 36:31 win against Spain, with 14 saves.

“Because of some big saves from Emil we got to go a little bit in front,” said Denmark’s coach Nikolaj Jacobsen.

“There was this moment of the game where he started to make really good saves, that we were alone in six metres, and he made what he makes best,” said Spanish right back Imanol Garciandia, afterwards. “They broke the game there, and it’s really hard with Denmark to come back.”

Wolff and Nielsen were named Players of the Match, presented by Grundfos, for the second consecutive match day in group I. In their previous matches Nielsen saved 11 shots against France and Wolff 13 against Portugal.

Neither goalkeeper is a stranger to success. Wolff was the All-star goalkeeper at the EHF EURO 2016, the 2023 World Championship and the EHF EURO 2024; Nielsen was the best goalkeeper of the season at the EHF Excellence Awards in 2024 and 2025, and the MVP of the season in 2025, as well as All-star goalkeeper at the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship.

But they are far from alone in standing out at the EHF EURO 2026. By this point in the competition — halfway through round 2 of the main round — a goalkeeper has been the Player of the Match. Alongside Wolff and Nielsen, Hungary’s Kristóf Palasics has picked up two awards.

When the goalkeeper statistics are examined, Wolff is the clear leader with 57 saves (including 35 in the two main round matches) ahead of Bergerud (47). But Palasics is almost certain to overtake Bergerud in the rankings after Hungary play Slovenia on Sunday night, as he has made 46 saves in four games so far. Palasics has the best average save rate of the leading goalkeepers, at 11.5 saves per match; Wolff has saved an average of 11.4 shots per game.

Palasics is also the strongest performer facing penalty shots, with five saves from 14 penalties taken against him; one more than Nielsen (4/20), Hallgrímsson (4/15) and France’s Charles Bolzinger (4/12).

Emil Nielsen has made 45 saves, officially in five matches, but technically in four as he did not take to the court against Romania. On that day his colleague “and most important teammate” Kevin Møller was awarded Player of the Match with 17 saves (44 per cent).

Alongside Palasics, Switzerland’s Nikola Portner (41 saves in four matches) and Iceland’s Viktor Hallgrímsson (38) can both add more saves on Sunday. Hallgrímsson, the All-star goalkeeper of the EHF EURO 2022, was particularly key against Hungary in Iceland’s last preliminary round game, when his 18 saves (45 per cent) took the group win.

“Viktor was the biggest reason for the two points,” his coach Snorri Steinn Guðjónsson said, after that match.

Goalkeeper rankings (after Saturday 24 January)

1. Andreas Wolff (GER): 57 saves / 165 shots / 34.55%
2. Torbjørn Bergerud (NOR): 47 saves / 151 shots / 31.13%
3. Kristóf Palasics (HUN): 46 saves / 132 shots / 34.85%
4. Emil Nielsen (DEN): 45 saves / 147 shots / 30.61%
5. Nikola Portner (SUI): 41 saves / 141 shots / 29.08%
6. Viktor Hallgrímsson (ISL): 38 saves / 127 shots / 29.92%
7. Gustavo Capdeville (POR): 35 saves / 146 shots / 23.97%
8. Pauli Jacobsen (FAR): 34 saves / 108 shots / 31.48% (no longer in the tournament)
9. Charles Bolzinger (FRA): 34 saves / 129 shots / 26.36%
10. Dejan Milosavljev (SRB): 31 saves / 106 shots / 29.25% (no longer in the tournament)

Team rankings

While the leading shot-stoppers are the number one goalkeepers in their teams for a reason, they are all backed up by solid second choices, who can step up to give their teammates a rest or if they are having an off-day.

David Späth for Germany, Robin Haug for Norway and Møller for Denmark are all solid replacements. Møller has the best save percentage of all goalkeepers to date (37 per cent), while Haug is fourth with 33 per cent. Späth has been less effective overall, but has made some big saves when it matters.

Germany top the team ranking with 67 saves before round 2 of group 2, ahead of Norway (65), Denmark (64). Switzerland, with one match less, have 54 saves and Hungary 53. France’s Bolzinger and Rémi Desbonnet, notably, have made the same number of saves as Switzerland, despite playing one match more.  

Spain and Portugal are even lower down the team ranking. Spain’s Sergey Hernández is on 28 saves and his teammate Ignacio Biosca 17, despite Hernández having an excellent season for his club SC Magdeburg in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League and the Bundesliga. In the latter competition, Hernández is currently the leading goalkeeper ahead of Späth and Wolff, but the Germans seem to be able to pull out something special for their national team. And this year, that might just take them to the final weekend.

1. Germany: 67 saves / 212 shots / 31.6%
2. Norway: 65 saves / 207 shots / 31.4%
3. Denmark: 64 saves / 198 shots / 32.32%
4. Switzerland: 54 saves / 171 shots / 31.58%
5. France: 54 saves / 209 shots / 25.84%

Goalkeepers awarded Player of the match, presented by Grundfos:

Preliminary round:

Kristóf Palasics (HUN) – Hungary vs Poland
Sergey Hernández (ESP) – Austria vs Spain
Tomáš Mrkva (CZE) – Czechia vs Norway
Domenico Ebner (ITA) – Italy vs Hungary
Nikola Portner (SUI) – Switzerland vs Slovenia
Kevin Møller (DEN) – Denmark vs Romania
Constantin Möstl (AUT) – Austria vs Spain
Mihai Popescu (ROU) – Romania vs North Macedonia
Viktor Hallgrímsson (ISL) – Iceland vs Hungary
Andreas Palicka (SWE) – Sweden vs Croatia

Main round:

Andreas Wolff (GER) – Germany vs Portugal
Emil Nielsen (DEN) – France vs Denmark
Kristóf Palasics (HUN) – Hungary vs Switzerland
Emil Nielsen (DEN) – Denmark vs Spain
Andreas Wolff (GER) – Germany vs Norway