On Thursday, the French men's handball team suffered their first defeat of the European Championship when they lost to Denmark, and another defeat would rule them out of the running for the semi-finals.
Today's match against Portugal, whom the French narrowly beat in the bronze medal game at the 2025 World Championshipwas expected to be a close contest.
A win was a must, and Dika Mem immediately stepped up as leader, firing in three of his team's first seven goals. The Portuguese were quickly overwhelmed, and Les Bleus took advantage to open up an early gap, forcing the opposition to call a timeout in less than ten minutes! After fifteen minutes, France was well on track for the victory (15-8).
Portugal had no answer for the relentless French attacks, and the lead soon reached double digits. Guillaume Gille rotated his squad, and by halftime, no fewer than six players had scored at least three goals! Only Victor Iturriza managed to do some damage for Portugal, who were already trailing heavily at the break (28-15).
France eased off in the second half with victory almost assured. After a brief lapse of two or three minutes, Les Bleus quickly regained their focus as their attacks were well-executed, with captain Ludovic Fabregas making a clear impact. This kept Portugal at bay, but with 15 minutes left, the gap had quietly narrowed to just 10 goals.
The match beat the record for the most goals ever scored in a single game at a Men's EHF EURO, beating the marker set by Slovenia and Montenegro in their 41-40 preliminary round game.
Dika Mem was named Player of the Match, scoring eight from eight and adding three assists.