The second semi-final at the Men’s EHF EURO 2022 pits the competition’s two most-titled teams against each other, with record champions Sweden aiming for their fifth final while France target their fourth.
Like the earlier semi-final, it is a rematch of the battle in the same stage at the World Championship one year ago, when Sweden shocked France to return to the final for the first time in 20 years. France ended up ranking fourth — only their fourth lost medal after reaching the semi-finals 25 times across all major championships.
SEMI-FINAL
France vs Sweden
Friday 28 January, 20:30 CET, live on EHFTV
- these are the most-decorated men’s handball teams in history — both sides have taken 21 across all major competitions. Sweden are the record holders at the EHF EURO, with four trophies, while France hold the record for most world titles, with six
- the head-to-head history between the sides is completely equal, with 11 wins apiece and no draw ever. At the EHF EURO, Sweden have won three encounters and France two
- the most recent EURO meeting was in 2018 — the last time either of these sides reached the semi-final stage at the European championship. France won the main round encounter, but Sweden went on to take the silver medal while France ranked third
- in the World Championship semi-final one year ago in Egypt, Sweden took a confident victory, 32:26
- while France, Denmark and Spain took the medals at Tokyo 2020, Sweden are the only EHF EURO 2022 semi-finalists to not have reached that stage — they placed fifth after losing the quarter-final to Spain by one goal
- France suffered their biggest EHF EURO defeat in history in the main round — 21:29 to Iceland — and the results in the group meant they entered the last main round day under pressure for a win against Denmark. After taking the lead for the first time in the 59th minute, coming from five goals behind in the last 15 minutes, France took the needed victory
- Sweden also had a tough time reaching the semi-finals, with one win, one draw and one loss in the preliminary round that meant they only just scraped into the main round. In their last main round game, they needed a win against Norway, and also pulled off a spectacular comeback to take it — from 19:23 in the 54th minute to a 24:23 win
- wing Hampus Wanne is Sweden’s top scorer, with 41 goals. Back Dika Mem is France’s leading scorer, with 32 — including the winning goal against Denmark that brought them to the semi-final
Maybe we should only play the last minutes against Sweden. Those were miracles for both teams, France and Sweden, and I am sure this team spirit will be the key of the next game.
We expect a difficult game. France have a great physical team with experience and skills. We have to come up on the high level of compact and aggressive defence we had shown in the previous matches and continue like this to have a chance against France on Friday.
