Live blog: Portugal and Sweden to play for fifth ahead of semis

14:15

Sweden have helpfully put together some of the head-to-head statistics between themselves and Portugal. In official matches, the score is one win for Portugal, one draw and seven victories to Sweden. Portugal finished better at last year's World Championship (fourth, with Sweden 14th), but Sweden won bronze at the EHF EURO 2024 when Portugal were seventh. Portugal's best finish in eight previous EHF EURO participations was sixth, so they've matched that - can they go one step better today?

In the tournament so far, Portugal have beaten Spain, Denmark and Romania; drawn with North Macedonia and Norway; and lost to France and Germany. Sweden beat the Netherlands, Georgia, Croatia, Slovenia and Switzerland, drew with Hungary, and lost to Iceland. 

Throw-off is at 15:00 CET!

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14:00

We're now an hour from throw-off for the 5/6 placement match, but the stat of the day looks ahead to the semi-finals. Julian Rux says: "The two semi-finals will see similar playing philosophies clash, but in two different ways. Germany and Croatia are the two teams that, among those that made it to the main round, score from the greatest average distance in positional attack, with 7.4 and 7.1 metres, while Denmark and Iceland have the shortest throwing distance, with 6.4 and 6 metres."

Those differences will certainly impact how the games play out; how each coach deploys his defence; and how effective the goalkeepers will end up being.

13:40

The referee nominations for today are out:

Icelanders Jonas Eliasson and Anton Pálsson will take charge of the 5/6 placement match. Bojan Lah and David Sok of Slovenia are whistling the first semi-final, between Germany and Croatia; Norway's Lars Jorum and Håvard Kleven are refereeing Denmark versus Iceland. 

13:00

With two hours until the 5/6 placement match between Portugal and Sweden throws off to start the final weekend, check out the recap of the main round and how they, and the four semi-finalists, reached this stage of the tournament. It was a main round to remember!

12:40

Don't forget to vote for the All-star Team - votes are open until midnight on Saturday night, but you can make your selection now - just download or open the Home of Handball app, and go from there! There's six players in each position, plus best defender and best young player, to pick from.

12:20

If you can't be with us in the Jyske Bank Boxen this weekend, there are still plenty of ways to follow the semi-finals. You're reading one of them; then there's all our social media channels. 

Plus, for today's games and the big matches on Sunday, we have our own studio at the arena, offering pre-match, half-time and post-match shows and dedicated match coverage for all games. 'The Spin' team - Bengt Kunkel, Martin Vilstrup, Victor Tomàs and Andrea Lekić - will be joined by special guests, today including Stine Oftedal, Hans Lindberg and Lars Christiansen. There's also going to be live commentary from Chris O'Reilly. You can watch the live show on EHFTV (the live matches may be geoblocked in your location).

12:00

Welcome to the Men's EHF EURO 2026 final weekend! After two and a half weeks of hotly contested handball, it's time to find out which two teams will reach the final.

All four have reached the podium in the past, but only Denmark and Germany have ever won the European title, and neither of them recently. Denmark and Germany both made this stage two years ago, but Croatia last reached the semi-finals in 2020 and Iceland in 2010.

We're expecting two quite different matches later today - to help you prepare, here's the day preview.