Martim Costa secures Portugal’s best-ever EHF EURO result

EHF / Björn Pazen

30 January 2026, 16:45

They were down 34:32 with three minutes left in the Men’s EHF EURO 2026 5/6 placement match, then the Costa brothers scored the last four goals for Portugal. Thanks to Martim Costa’s buzzer beater for 36:35, their side achieved their goal of taking their best Men’s EHF EURO result ever, finishing fifth, after the sixth rank in 2020.

Martim’s brother Francisco now — likely temporarily — tops the tournament’s scorer list with 61 goals.

The placement match was the last for Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Palicka, as announced by the Swedish Federation during the game.

5/6 PLACEMENT MATCH

Portugal vs Sweden 36:35 (16:16)

H2H: 2-1-7
Top scorers: Martim Costa 9/11 (POR); Lukas Sandell 8/10 (SWE)
Goalkeeper saves: Gustavo Capdeville 9/30, Diogo Valério 1/14 (POR); Andreas Palicka 7/34, Mikael Appelgren 1/10 (SWE)
POTM presented by Grundfos: Martim Costa (POR)

eight times, Sweden, levelled the score in the first half, but never took the lead, as they missed too many chances, including two penalties against Portugal goalkeeper Gustavo Capdeville
six minutes after the break, Sweden took their first two-goal advantage, profiting from Palicka’s saves
as, on the other side, Capdeville continued with outstanding form and Francisco Costa started his goal machine, Portugal remained on level with the five-time EHF EURO champions
netting for 26:26, Sweden playmaker Jim Gottfridsson levelled with four-time European champion Magnus Wislander in terms of EHF EURO goals, with both now on 126
Oscar Bergendahl scored for 35:35 six seconds before the end, but it was Martim Costa who decided the match with his ninth goal

High speed only in crunch time

Finishing among the top six had already granted Portugal and Sweden their direct tickets to the 2027 World Championship, allowing them to skip the play-offs. Both are famous for their counterattacks and high-speed handball, but on Friday, they mostly hit the brakes — except in crunch time. Portugal’s attack was focused on the Costa brothers and line player Victor Iturizza, while Sweden impressed with a variety of scorers, including rising star Nikola Roganović, who was cold as ice from the penalty line. In the end, the Costa brothers both saved their 100th career EHF EURO goals for the next event, co-hosted by Portugal. Martim is now on 98 and Francisco on 91.

This is the perfect ending for us. We get the best position ever in this championship. The scenario tonight was crazy again.

In a few days, we will look at the ranking and tell ourselves that what we did is just, crazy. We have been writing the history of our sport in Portugal for the past few years, and the only thing I can hope for is that we can continue on this road.

Luís Frade

Line player, Portugal

It’s a big disappointment, of course, because everything is decided on one shot and I feel like we had played pretty good before. We would have deserved to play in the overtime, but there was not much we could do on the last action. It is a disappointment, of course, because we would have liked to finish the tournament on a high.

Mikael Appelgren

Goalkeeper, Sweden