Semi-finals set at EHF Beach Handball Championship

The semi-finals and medal matches will take place on Sunday 12 July, and will also be streamed live on EHFTV.

Women, 11:00 CEST:

• France vs Portugal
• Ukraine vs Hungary 

Men, 12:00 CEST:

• Poland vs Netherlands
• Norway vs Czechia

The women's final is scheduled for 18:00 CEST, followed by the men's final at 19:00 CEST.

Men’s EHF Beach Handball Championship 2026

• Poland, Norway, Czechia and the Netherlands have not only qualified for the semi-finals, but they have also clinched their tickets to the EHF Beach Handball EURO 2027
• The reigning champions, Poland, are one step closer to successfully defending their title after beating Sweden 2:0 (24:20, 23:21) in a rematch of the 2024 final; Sweden qualified for the quarter-finals as the fourth-placed team in Group B
• After a close first set, Poland got off to a dominant start in the second, establishing a 10:3 lead within two minutes; Sweden crawled back into contention, cutting the Polish lead to just one point, but the Polish side proved once more why they are the defending champions
• Norway and Cyprus met in the second quarter-final between the first and fourth placed teams from the group phase; Norway dominated both sets, showing an even more dominant display in the second, leading by double digits after six minutes and cruising to the semi-finals with a 2:0 (23:15, 27:22) win
• Czechia beat Ukraine in a dramatic shoot-out; the Czechs made a tremendous start to the first set, and Ukraine were unable to recover, losing the set 23:27; the second set saw the roles reversed, with Ukraine taking control from the fourth minute onwards and eventually a 24:17 win, sending the teams to a shoot-out
• In the shoot-out, it took Czechia two attempts to decide the match after Ukraine missed their third and fourth shots; Pavel Chotěborský was the Czech hero, beating the keeper with the decisive shot and securing his team's place in the semi-finals
• The Netherlands and Türkiye delivered a thrilling encounter under the lights at Jarun Lake; a low-scoring opening ten minutes were decided by Thomas van Ophem’s block with just three seconds left on the clock, handing the Dutch the first set
• The Netherlands were in control during the second set, never trailing during the ten minutes to secure a 2:0 (18:16, 23:18) quarter-final victory
• Norway and Poland enter the medal matches with a perfect record of five wins from five matches and six wins from six matches, respectively
• Sweden, Türkiye, Cyprus, and Ukraine will compete in the cross matches 5-8 to fight for the three remaining spots at the EHF Beach Handball EURO 2027, as only the seven-highest ranked men’s nations will qualify; the first round of placement matches starts at 10:00 CEST

Women’s EHF Beach Handball Championship 2026

• The eight best-ranked women’s teams — Hungary, Czechia, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, France, and Italy — have secured their places at the EHF Beach Handball EURO 2027 in Lithuania by reaching the quarter-finals
• Ukraine beat Sweden in a shoot-out to advance to the semi-finals (26:22, 29:16, 6:8), avenging their defeat in the bronze medal match two years ago; goalkeeper Tetiana Yarema decided the match with a shot from coast-to-coast, after Sweden failed to convert their last two attempts
• France and Italy played a similar match to their encounter in the group phase two years ago; Italy took a close first set (26:24), but France responded with a dominant second set (27:14) to win in a thrilling shoot-out
• Italy missed their first and last shots in the shoot-out, setting up France’s Aouen Follet to secure a win with a one-point attempt, despite France having missed their fourth shot only moments prior
• Czechia got off to a better start in the first set against Hungary, but a 12:2 run by Hungary turned the fortunes around in favour of the Hungarians (18:12); in the second set, Hungary picked up where they left off at the end of the first, taking a dominant 19:12 win and securing their place in the semi-finals
• Czechia can take many positives from this tournament; two years ago, they were one of only two teams not to win a match at this competition, but this year, they have won three out of five matches, seemingly closing the gap on favourites such as France and Hungary, who made the final in 2024
• Portugal beat Poland in two sets to secure the fourth spot in the semi-finals; the Portuguese team created a gap in the last minutes of the first set, scoring five unanswered points to win it narrowly; in the second set, Portugal went on a 7:0 run in the final two minutes to close the match (18:16, 18:12)
• France and Hungary enter the semi-finals with a perfect record of five wins from five matches and four wins from four matches, respectively
• Ukraine have qualified for the semi-finals as one of the two best third-ranked teams from the group phase
• Three of the four semi-finalists from the EHF Beach Handball Championship 2024 have reached the final stage of the competition once again: Hungary, France, and Ukraine

Photos © kolektiff