Portugal power to gold at EHF Wheelchair EURO 2025
There's no stopping Portugal! Coming in as the tournament favourites, Portugal lived up to their billing at the EHF European Wheelchair Handball Championship 2025 in Vilnius and beat France 2:1 (7:6, 9:10, 7:0) in the final on Sunday evening to win gold. Earlier, hosts Lithuania defeated Croatia 2:1 (7:8, 5:4, 6:3) in the third-place match to take bronze in a five-day championship that opened a new era for the sport.
The EHF Wheelchair EURO 2025 was the first European Championship played under the four-a-side rules — with mixed-gender teams of four players — and had a record nine participating nations, underlining the international growth of the sport.
The tournament took place in the arena of the NBA Basketball School in Vilnius, as Lithuania played and hosted their first-ever international wheelchair handball championship.
- after not losing a single set before the final, Portugal opened the gold medal match against France by narrowly taking the opening set 7:6
- they missed a chance to close out the match in the second set, an opportunity France used to take the match into a deciding set, 10:9
- however, without their team captain Mathieu De Cilia, who was sent off with a red card near the end of the second set, France were left with no chance in the decider as Portugal powered to victory — and to the gold medal, 7:0
- Joao Jeronimo was instrumental for Portugal in the final, scoring 14 of his team's 23 points
- the tournament top scorer was his teammate Ricardo Queiros, with 52 points, while Maria Relvas was named MVP, alongside Spain's Lorenzo Enzo Edjang
- Portugal had beaten France clearly 2:0 (10:2, 11:6) in the group phase Friday, after France had won their duel last year when the teams met in the World Championship quarter-finals
- shot efficiency makes the difference: Portugal finish on 66.6 per cent, France on 60.8 per cent for the tournament, but no other team converted even 45 per cent of their shots
- Portugal's triumph came four years after they won a combined European and World Wheelchair Handball Championship, which had the different six-a-side format
- a minute of silence was observed before the final in commemoration of Marc de Sousa, an EHF Expert from France and prominent advocate in the development of wheelchair handball who passed away last September
