Hungary, Spain, Sweden advance to both men's and women's semi-finals

Hungary won both the men’s and the women’s title at the YAC 16 Beach Handball EURO 2022, and their two teams are still in the race to duplicate last year’s achievement.

Not only Hungary are semi-finalists in both events, the same applies to Spain and Sweden. In the men’s event, the semi-final lineup is completed by Germany, in the women’s event by Netherlands.

On Saturday, the preliminary round was completed in the morning hours, followed by the quarter-finals in the afternoon. The semi-finals are scheduled for Sunday morning, the men’s final for 15:30 CEST and the women’s final for 16:30 CEST.

All matches are available live on EHFTV without geo-restrictions and in the EHF beach handball liveticker, with additional coverage on the EHF beach handball Instagram page.

Men’s 17 EHF Beach Handball EURO 2023

• Croatia and Czech Republic in group A; Spain and France in B; and Germany and Sweden in C all finished as the top two teams in the preliminary round groups; Hungary and Norway edged out Poland on set difference in the standings of the third-ranked teams.
• Quarter-final results:
  - Croatia vs Hungary 0:2 (22:27, 18:21)
  - Spain vs Norway 2:0 (19:16, 19:14)
  - Germany vs Czech Republic 2:0 (20:16, 22:10)
  - France vs Sweden 0:2 (24:29, 22:25)
• Defending champions Hungary only advanced to the quarter-finals as one of the best third-ranked teams, but then clearly defeated Croatia.
• All quarter-finals had a relatively clear outcome, with each set in the four matches won by a margin of at least three points.
• Semi-finals (Sunday, 8:45 CEST):
  - Hungary vs Sweden
  - Spain vs Germany
• Croatia’s Simun Jerkan still leads the top scorers standings, with 65 points, but six other players have also scored 60 or more so far.

Women’s 17 EHF Beach Handball EURO 2023

• Spain and Portugal in group A; Hungary and Sweden in B; and Netherlands and Germany in C all finished as the top two teams in the preliminary round groups; Ukraine and Norway edged out France on set difference in the standings of the third-ranked teams.
• Quarter-final results:
  - Netherlands vs Ukraine 2:1 (25:22, 18:20, 10:8)
  - Spain vs Norway 2:1 (18:23, 17:16, 7:6)
  - Hungary vs Germany 2:0 (25:11, 22:10)
  - Sweden vs Portugal 2:1 (12:16, 16:11, 4:0)
• Hungary continued their dominant title defence with a two-set drubbing of Germany; the other three quarter-finals all went into a shootout.
• Spain had the closest of wins, as the Spain vs Norway quarter-final clashes for both genders went to Spain.
• Semi-finals (Sunday, 10:15 CEST):
  - Netherlands vs Sweden
  - Spain vs Hungary
• Germany’s Pauline Borrmann maintained her lead in the top scorers standings, now with 73 points; Spain’s Lucia Martinez Dominguez is her closest challenger on 71.

photos © Uros Hocevar, Jure Erzen / kolektiff