Portugal defeat Spain to finish main round on a high

EHF / Björn Pazen

28 January 2026, 17:20

Two days ago, Spain beat France with tactical masterclass at the Men's EHF EURO 2026. On Wednesday, their performance was far different, losing against Portugal for the first time at an EHF EURO final tournament.

Thanks to the 35:27 win, the Costa brothers and their teammates are still in the race for the 5/6 placement match on Friday, which would guarantee them a direct spot at the 2027 IHF World Championship — but they rely the results of the other games.

GROUP I

SPAIN vs PORTUGAL 27:35 (12:16)

H2H: 11-0-2
Top scorers: Jan Gurri 6/10, Aleix Gómez 6/7 (ESP); Francisco Costa 7/13 (POR)
Goalkeepers: Sergey Hernández 8/41, Ignacio Biosca 0/1 (ESP); Gustavo Capdeville 3/8, Diogo Valério 7/25 (POR)
POTM presented by Grundfos: Martim Costa (POR)

in their 50th EHF EURO match, Portugal scored a 6:0 run in the middle of the first half for the 9:4 lead to shock Spain, which was crucial for the 16:12 half-time advantage
goalkeeper Diogo Valério and the Costa brothers, who combined for 10 of 16 goals before the break, were the driving forces for Paulo Pereira's team
Spain improved after the break, especially in terms of efficiency in attack, but even though Sergey Hernández saved some shots, the gap did not decrease significantly
finally, a double strike of line player Victor Iturizza for 30:23 decided the encounter, in which Portugal were never endangered by their neighbours
Gustavo Capdeville, who replaced Valério, backed his side after the break, and the final margin could have been bigger, as Portugal missed many chances in the 25th EHF EURO match of António Areia

Only legend Carlos Resende stays ahead of the Costa brothers

Martim and Francisco Costa are only 20 and 23 years old, and they already rock the handball world. Two years ago, Martim was the All-star Team left back and top scorer alongside Mathias Gidsel. At the 2025 IHF World Championship, both Martim and Francisco were in the All-star Team. But one statistic highlights their importance for the Portuguese team: after playing only two EHF EURO final tournaments, the brothers are already the second and third-best all-time scorers for Portugal at the European Championship.

At the top of the charts is Portugal’s legend Carlos Resende, who needed four EHF EUROs to score his 108 goals. Martim had already taken the second position before their last main round match against Spain, and he is now boasting 89 goals, while “Kiko” is third with 84 — and the younger brother currently leads the overall EHF EURO 2026 top scorers' list with 53 goals.

I think we were not focused, for sure. For me it’s our worst game in the whole tournament. We were happy before the game, we managed to make a great tournament, but today really was our worst performance.

Alex Dujshebaev

Right back, Spain

We said we wanted to give ourselves all of the chances to win and to go to the 5/6 placement game. And I think we took that game by the right end, like we really played well, on both sides of the court. It was a really good game from us, against a very tough team of Spain, who had just beat France. I am really proud of what we were able to do, despite being tired and already eliminated.

António Areia

Right wing, Portugal