By the end, Portugal has taken care of our hand-pick as Portugal 34 26 Hungary European Championship semi-final. The Hungarian men's handball team lost to Portugal, 34-26, in the final round of the European Championship semi-final, so it certainly won't be among the top six teams in the tournament - which means it will surely miss the Olympic qualifier. He finished fifth in the Hungarian national team and ninth overall.

MASTER BALANCE

Paulo PEREIRA, captain of the Portuguese national team: - Respect for the Hungarians, they fought hard to win the game and fight for the Olympic qualification, but now we were the better. The key to our defense was that we were able to launch a lot of attacks, and the seven-against-six games worked great and even scored many goals when tactics were gone. We were focused all the time, playing a nearly perfect match.

Portugal 34 26 Hungary European Championship semi-final

SUMMARY

Even against the Swedes, Hungarian players had shown that they were physically and mentally tired of the sixth match at the European Championship, so it was a big question how the team could shake the guys up for Portugal's seventh and final semi-final match. in eighteen hours.

Because the stakes were high for both teams, István Gulyás's team would have been able to continue their fight with a victory or a draw at the tournament venue in Stockholm, and could have even made it to the semi-finals, depending on later matches. However, it was also a key aspect of how well prepared you are, how effectively you can keep the Portuguese seven-to-six tactics so far proven.

In the fourth minute, the Hungarian players were a little scared when FC Porto's left-footer Fábio Magalhaes slipped Mikler Roland from goalkeeper with half a minute left, and Bence Bánhidi received a yellow card after "taking down" his opponent Luís Frade. The difference between the two goals was maintained, but in the 13th minute the Portuguese took the lead and from then on we had to run after the whole match, which made it difficult to play with many errors and made our game a bit more predictable.

The Portuguese captain repeatedly complained fiercely, for example, when Zsolt Balogh dropped his goalkeeper Alfredo Quintana on the shoulder, and he was spectacularly gesticulated for the Hungarian bench as Zoltán Sita struck two pitchers in the nose after a collision with Alexandre Cavalcanti. It turned out that they had reached his eyes and his contact lens had fallen out, and the Hungarian ball-shooter had gone into the dressing room, and since he had not seen properly, he was not sure he would return to the field.

The first half ended with a 16-14 Portuguese lead, which was not bad at all, it seemed more worrying that we could not start with an opponent's smooth week against six in attack and defense, we couldn't take advantage of playing without a goalkeeper in the face of their overwhelming attacks, our village opened up and Portugal immediately found the gaps.

After the break, Sita returned to the bench, but was unable to enter the field, which was a huge disadvantage for us. We started the second half with a missed week, and one of the pillars of defense, Adrian Sipos, crashing to the ground after a collision, did not look good, because Tatabánya's striker is not the acting type, if he is down, he has a reason.

Even though the Hungarian fans of the Malmö Arena were getting louder, they could not get closer to the Portuguese, who had not forced their dominant attacks by that time. When the opponent settled in the 47th minute with five goals (25-20) again, the Hungarian team demanded time, but that didn't help much.

We couldn't shake the band, the attacks still didn't come in, they didn't get more creative, and while we fought off the Portuguese wall, our rival was better able to keep his freshness, if he could, to speed up his game, we started with eight minutes of disadvantage (29-22). At that time, the Hungarian team felt that it could not be reversed, and the other group opponents had to keep in mind at least a five-goal gap and hope for the Olympic qualifying tournament, but it failed.

One and a half minutes before the end, the Iberians had already scored seven goals when Mátyás Győri's shot was defended by Humberto Gomes, which showed that the Hungarian team was not only tired of the seventh Eb match, but had no luck either.

In the end, it was good to hear Sweden chanting "Nice, boys" because the end was 34-26, but this team has nothing to be ashamed of, especially in the light that no one was waiting for the semi-final. It's just been a lot of seven tough matches for this young team.

He finished fifth in the Hungarian national team and ninth overall, losing all chances for the Olympic qualifier.