Despite losing Ivan Burzak early after a contact with Dika Mem, Ukraine definitely showed they were ready to bounce back following the initial defeat against Norway. But their good intentions were thwarted by France’s defence. With only two goals scored during the last 17 minutes of the first half, it was hard for Ukraine to cope with their opponents’ rhythm, and that resulted in a 12-goal difference at the break.
With the game firmly in hand, France did not take their foot off the pedal. They kept on defending strong and used every available opportunity to increase their advantage to 20 goals at the final whistle. As a result, they beat their record for the biggest win at the EHF EURO and for most goals scored in an EHF EURO game.
GROUP C
H2H: 0-0-7
Top scorers: Dmytro Artemenko 8/10 (Ukraine), Melvyn Richardson 6/7, Benoit Kunkoud 6/8 and Dylan Nahi 6/8 (all France)
Goalkeeper saves: Anton Terekhov 11/45, Oleksii Novikov 2/14 (both Ukraine), Charles Bolzinger 7/19, Remi Desbonnet 9/22 (both France)
POTM presented by Grundfos: Melvyn Richardson (France)
- Ukraine did more than look the EHF EURO 2024 winners in the eyes in the first moments, as they were even ahead by one after 10 minutes, with Ihor Tuchenko and Dmytro Artemenko scoring three each
- it was only after a timeout that France turned things around, enjoying a 6:1 run to take a five-goal advantage in the 22nd minute
- not conceding any goals for more than 10 minutes, Guillaume Gille’s squad increased the gap steadily and reached a 12-goal advantage at half-time
- with 12 players scoring at least once, France was ahead by 20 goals in minute 59; following this result, France beat their record for the biggest victory at the EHF EURO — the previous one dating back to 2002 in a victory against Slovenia (36:21)
- France also beat the record for most goals in an EHF EURO game — from two days ago, against Czechia (42:28)
- France now have four points after two rounds, while Ukraine are still on zero points before facing Czechia in the last round
Four centre backs and just as many solutions for France
When it was announced that Nédim Rémili, the EHF EURO 2024 MVP, would miss the 2026 edition due to a calf injury, some wondered how his team would adapt. After all, despite being a left-hander, One Veszprém HC's player was at the centre of the French game for a few years.
But that was not a problem for Guillaume Gille, as the France coach has more than one solution in his bag. He put Aymeric Minne at the wheel during the preparations, and also in the first game against Czechia, and judging by the 42 goals France scored in the opening game at the Men's EHF EURO 2026, he proved to be more than a solution.
Tonight, he was benched for the whole 60 minutes, but France still managed to find solutions. Melvyn Richardson and newcomer Aymeric Zaepfel took responsibility in attack, and with 46 goals scored France pulled off another offensive blinder.
We enjoyed 15 minutes of the game, but I’d say that the last 45 minutes were a little bit painful. We played very well, actually, in the first part of the game, especially defensively. We recovered a lot of balls, managed to score fast breaks. But we should have played like that for 60 minutes if we wanted to take more points.
We had a large win, we remained serious throughout the whole game and we managed to have all 15 players to play. We rested Aymeric Minne a little bit, because I am sure that we will need him for the next games. Now, we are heading towards the first corner in this competition, the game against Norway, and we are very excited to see where we are at.
