France and Norway in the European Championship main round
France’s handball players celebrated a record-breaking victory at the European Championships and reached the main round early. The team around star Dika Mem, who will be with Füchse Berlin from summer 2027, effortlessly won 46:26 (24:12) against Ukraine in Oslo – a team had never scored so many goals in a European Championship game. In addition, the defending champions equaled their highest win in a final round with a 20-goal lead.
For France, Melvyn Richardson, Benoit Kounkoud and Dylan Nahi were the best throwers with six goals each, Mem scored five goals. After two successes, the French are in first place in Group C with four points, closely followed by Norway, which also moved into the main round with a 29:25 (16:16) win against the Czech Republic.
Spain was also happy about its second win in the second game, but is not yet in the main round after Germany’s surprising 27:30 defeat against Serbia. The two-time European champions beat Austria 30:25 (19:12) in Herning, Denmark. With a win for the DHB team afterwards, the move into the next round would have been perfect, now the trend-setting duel against the German team awaits on Monday.
Against the Austrians, who had lost the hard-fought neighborhood duel against Germany 27:30 at the start, Spain laid the foundation for success in the first round. At halftime the lead was already seven goals. The best thrower of the game was Austria’s Tobias Wagner with six goals.
The World Cup runners-up Croatia barely managed to avoid a memorable false start to the tournament. In Malmö, Sweden, the team of Dagur Sigurdsson, national coach at the German European Championship title in 2016, won 32:29 (15:14) against outsiders Georgia, who had still been in the lead until the 49th minute. Co-hosts Sweden won confidently with 36:31 (16:12) against the Netherlands (dpa)
