Four teams equal before second round in Herning

Saturday’s games bring different re-matches: France vs Portugal was the bronze medal match at the 2025 IHF World Championship in Oslo; Denmark faced Spain in the EHF EURO 2022 semi-final and the 2023 World Championship semi-final, among many other meetings; and Germany and Norway have also met in world and European semi-finals in the past.

Germany have the best chance of taking another step towards the final weekend, ahead of their meetings with Denmark and France next week.

GROUP I

France vs Portugal

Saturday 24 January, 15:30 CET, live on EHFTV
H2H: 10-0-3

• France lost their first main round game against Denmark (29:32), despite Aymeric Minne scoring seven goals
• Portugal also lost their first main round game against Germany (30:32), as Francisco Costa scored 10 goals
• the Portuguese right back is currently the best scorer of the competition, with 39 goals scored
• Dylan Nahi has netted 20 times across the first four games, making him the most prolific scorer in a well-balanced French team
• the last time the two teams played against each other was at the 2025 World Championship, when France beat Portugal in the bronze medal match (35:34 after overtime)
• they have met just once at an EHF EURO, in 2020, when Portugal opened their return to the competition with a 28:25 victory in the preliminary round

Spain vs Denmark

Saturday 24 January, 18:00 CET, live on EHFTV
H2H: 8-1-19

• Spain lost their main round opener 34:35 against Norway, despite eight goals by right wing Aleix Gómez; it was their second consecutive defeat after losing the final preliminary round match against Germany 32:34
• on Thursday, 11 saves by Emil Nielsen and a late goal-scoring run from Emil Jakobsen rescued Denmark from defeat by France; they won 32:29 to give themselves two main round points
• Spain did not win an official match against Denmark between 2015, when they knocked Denmark out in the World Championship quarter-final, until the semi-finals of the EHF EURO 2022 in Budapest, when they won 29:25. Spain went on to take silver and Denmark bronze
• in the interim, Denmark won both the 2021 World Championship and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games semi-finals against Spain — 35:33 and 27:23, respectively
• Danes Mathias Gidsel (34 goals) and Simon Pytlick (31) were 2nd and 3rd in the top scorer list after their first main round matches; Gómez is the best Spanish shooter with 19 strikes

Germany vs Norway

Saturday 24 January, 18:00 CET, live on EHFTV
H2H: 7-2-5

• after the close 34:32 win against Portugal, secured by goalkeeper Andreas Wolff, their second straight win after beating Spain, Germany top the group, as the only team with the optimum of four points
• Norway also beat Spain, but by a single goal (35:34) secured in the dying moments; left wing August Pedersen was the match-winner with 11 goals
• the most important EHF EURO duel between the two sides was the iconic semi-final in 2016, when Germany won 34:33 after overtime and became European champions two days later
• Norway’s most significant victory over Germany was in the 2019 World Championship semi-final in Hamburg (31:25), when they made it to their second straight final
• Norway’s Torbjørn Bergerud (37 saves) and Wolff (35) are currently the two best goalkeepers of the competition; the top scorers of are Pedersen (28) and German Renars Uščins (24)
• besides Pedersen, five more players from the current Norwegian squad play for German clubs: Tobias Grøndahl, Kaspar Lien, Thomas Solstad, and Robin Haug
• Norway’s Sander Sagosen and German left wing Rune Dahmke are brothers-in-law: Dahmke is married to retired Norwegian star Stine Oftedal, and Sagosen to her sister Hanna

Photos © kolektiff images