Defence is key for the new Portugal

Occasionally, there has been an upset, with one of the top nations losing in a big tournament – but no other team has managed to break into that circle of champions.

When the Men’s EHF EURO was extended from 16 to 24 participants in 2020, Portugal grabbed their chance to qualify. And they shocked the establishment straight away in the preliminary round in Trondheim, beating France 28:25 in round 1, ultimately eliminating the 2018 bronze medallists. Portugal went on to finish sixth, and repeated that result in 2024.

“Portugal really improved, their development is outstanding, it is great to see how they integrate their huge pool of talents,” says Alfred Gislason, head coach of the German team, Portugal’s first opponent in the Men's EHF EURO 2026 main round on Thursday (15.30 CET, live on EHFTV). Both sides were group winners and start with two points.

Particularly since the arrival of the Costa brothers, Francisco and Martim, from the junior team in 2023, Portugal have become famous for their attack. They ran, they scored — and the only way for Portugal was up.

At the 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship, Portugal beat Norway, Brazil and Spain and tied with Sweden to make it to their first ever quarter-final on the global stage. And there, they caused their next sensation: beating Germany after overtime 31:30. Portugal’s first ever semi-final followed, but the story came to an end on 31 January 2025 in Oslo: Portugal were defeated by the eventual world champions Denmark 30:40 and then missed the bronze medal against France.

20 January 2026, 354 days after the world semi-defeat; the final match of the preliminary round of the EHF EURO 2026. 15,000 mostly Danish fans have rocked up at the Jyske Bank Boxen to watch Denmark take on Portugal. Anything other than a Danish win would be a surprise: since the final of the EHF EURO 2014, Denmark had not lost any match in Herning — until Tuesday. 

In the end, Portugal scored only one goal more than in 2025, but conceded 11 less, winning 31:29 against the big favourites.

Of course, the Costa brothers netted nine goals each, but this time, defence was the key.

“Normally we look too much at our attack. The fans only see the player who scores the most goals. But the majority forget the defence, and only with defence you make results,” Portuguese coach Paulo Pereira said after the magnificent win.

“Against Denmark, the defence was important and crucial. To defend guys like (Mathias) Gidsel and (Simon) Pytlick you must play amazing, not only in the centre block but in the whole cooperation of the defence. You must be prepared on everything that might come, like seven against five, seven against six, six against six. We prepared our defence with a lot of details. And I have to say that this match was the one when my team stuck to the plan in the best way ever and really functioned well.”

Portugal’s middle block with Salvador Salvador and Victor Iturizza was extremely movable and anticipating well, but the whole defence was on fire. Unfortunately for Portugal, Iturizza will be suspended for the match against Germany after his red card from the Denmark match.

For experienced wing António Areia the key was “to keep Denmark under 30 goals, which not many teams achieved in the last years. In general, we need steals and defence to start our fast breaks. We know how strong we can be in attack, because of our quality, but defence is the most important part of our game right now. We could not stop Mathias Gidsel, as he is unstoppable, but we caused him and Denmark problems — and this is how we want to continue.”

Martim Costa, who describes his role as “it’s my job to score goals”, is also aware how important a stable defence is.

“We know that Denmark is the best team in the world in attack, so we needed to be perfect in every detail and to be 100 per cent focused for every second of the match, as if you are not aware they score a goal. We only conceded 11 goals at half-time, which is amazing against Denmark. Our goalkeepers really helped us, we found good solutions for everything in defence,” Costa says.

And when the match was over, Portugal had found their new heroes.

“The people at home went crazy on social media. It is amazing to put handball in focus in Portugal, we are not the major sport in a football country. So we make the people talk about handball with result like those,” adds Costa, who scored a total of 18 goals in the preliminary round, 11 below his younger brother. Two years ago, Martim Costa was the joint EHF EURO top scorer alongside Gidsel.

And will Portugal make it to another semi-final in Herning? Costa and Salvador remain cautious.

“The major goal is to win every game. Of course we want to reach the semi-finals. The first focus is on Germany, we do not think further. But if we win, we are closer to our goal,” says the left back.

Salvador adds: “We have a hell of a main round ahead with Germany, France, Spain and Norway — all of them can make it to the semi-finals. It will be a hard week and a half with four really competitive games.”

Areia is also calm before the main round opener against Germany.

“Of course, it is good for our confidence that we know we have beaten them already in a crucial match last year. But it is another competition, the moment of the match is different, so it will be totally different. New game, new competition, we should forget what happened last year,” he cautions.

And coach Pereira, who was “more than extremely happy” on Tuesday night, is not celebrating too early.

“Our goal is ambitious, to beat our best result, the sixth place in 2020. It means we want to be among the top five in Europe, which is not easy. We assume this goal, but we know that we can have even more ambitious goals. When we win more matches, we will try. But now, we keep the foot on the ground and go step by step,” Pereira concludes.

That first step happens on Thursday afternoon.

Photos © kolektiff images