With Croatia captain Ivan Martinović scoring five in the first half alone, the teams remained neck to neck, before Germany pushed in the last minutes. With two goals in a row, they had a narrow advantage at the break, even though everything remained open for the second half.
Germany put themselves out of danger as soon as they returned from the locker room. Scoring five goals in a row, they took a six-goal safety net that would last them until the final siren. Despite Croatia coming back within two, Germany never lost their composure. On Sunday, Andreas Wolff, Rune Dahmke and Jannik Kohlbacher will try to take their second EHF EURO title, 10 years after the one they miraculously claimed in 2016.
Handball stars gathered around the court at Jyske Bank Boxen to witness the EHF EURO 2026 semi-finals, with Uwe Gensheimer, Nikola Karabatic, Domagoj Duvnjak and Ljubomir Vranjes all in the stands.
SEMI-FINAL
H2H: 4-1-11
Top scorers: Lukas Zerbe 6/7 (GER); Tin Lučin 6/13 (CRO)
Goalkeeper saves: Andreas Wolff 13/41 (GER); Dominik Kuzmanović 7/23, Matej Mandić 1/11 (CRO)
POTM presented by Grundfos: Andreas Wolff
- the Croatian seven-against-six offensive system proved efficient in the first half, with Martinović and Luka Lovre Klarica finding easy solutions
- the only down point for Croatia was that Germany also had the opportunity to score in an empty goal, which kept the score tight throughout the first half
- the German players came back from the dressing room with more energy, and scored a 5:0 series to take a 22:16 advantage at minute 37; their biggest lead was seven goals
- driven by Mario Šoštarić and Klarica, Croatia came back within two in the last minutes, but could not manage to reduce the gap further
- thanks to his 12 saves at a rate of 38 per cent, Germany goalkeeper Wolff was elected Player of the Match; with the semi-final, Wolff also tied Germany's record for most games played at the EHF EURO, with 41 games
- in Sunday’s title match, Germany will face the winner of the second semi-final between Denmark and Iceland, while Croatia will play against the loser of that game in the battle for the bronze medal
Johannes Golla, the leader of the German pack
The performances of Wolff and Juri Knorr have been discussed often since the beginning of the EHF EURO, but on Friday night, another Germany player was in the spotlight. He might be the captain of the team, but Johannes Golla’s performances are not always put forward.
Against Croatia, Golla was the detonator for Germany, on both sides of the court. He took a few minutes to find his feet against Martinović, but once he did, the Croatia back could barely find a shooting solution. Offensively, Golla was the player his teammates went to within the aggressive defence from their opponents. Golla scored three times within 12 minutes at the start of the second half and four overall, and guided his team into the final.
I’m absolutely delighted and completely overwhelmed. I’m over the moon. Reaching the final straight away at my first tournament with the men’s team — fantastic. But we still have one step to go; the ultimate goal is still ahead of us.
Germany played a very good game. We played a very good first half. In the goalkeeper performance, there was too much difference. When [Dominik] Kuzmanović came in, we could put them under pressure.
