It shouldn’t have been possible, but yesterday it was. With the Costa brothers leading the way, Portugal beat Denmark in Herning 31–29 to win the group.
After drawing 29–29 with North Macedonia, there wasn’t much to suggest Portugal would have any chance as they took on Denmark. The world champions had dominated both of their opening games, and with the home crowd behind them, it looked like an almost impossible task for the Portuguese side.
But right from the start, Portugal showed they were up for the challenge. Gustavo Capdeville made six saves, and with an incredible defense in front of him, they held Denmark to just eleven first-half goals.
Despite that, Portugal were only one goal ahead at the break. After a scoring outburst from Denmark, they claimed a two-goal lead just a few minutes into the second half. The crowd turned up the heat big time, and most sides would probably have folded there — but not Portugal. They showed resilience once again.
The defense returned to its first-half form, and at the same time Portugal’s stars, the Costa brothers, put on an offensive masterclass. The pair scored nine goals each, and together they carried Portugal back and reclaimed the lead again.
Denmark tried everything to come back, even man-to-man marking the brothers, but Nikolaj Jakobsen’s side couldn’t find a way to stop the Portuguese. In the final minutes Denmark were just one goal behind, but then Areia stepped up with a moment of magic from the right wing, scoring an incredible goal from a tight angle.
That goal sealed the game, and Portugal could celebrate one of — if not their biggest — win in national handball history.
– It is tough to put it into words. We were superb in many parts. Our goalkeepers helped us a lot, defensively it was perfect how we stopped Denmark. In attack, we had a high scoring efficiency against Emil (Nielsen) in goal. The rest I do not know. But I feel really proud of this team. It is incredible that we made it to the main round with two points, says Luis Frade after the game.
For Denmark, it was a shocking defeat as they lost their second game ever in Jyske Bank Boxen, having previously only lost once alongside twenty-five wins. Now the favorites are under real pressure going into a tough main round group.
– We simply lost to a better team today. Portugal played really well, very strong. They put us under a lot of pressure in attack. They forced us into technical errors, and defensively we were actually set up quite well at times. But on the counterattacks, the Costa brothers just completely flattened us, and that obviously makes things very difficult for us, said goalkeeper Kevin Møller.