Sweden continues in the handball European Championship, having achieved its fourth victory in the same number of games. This Friday, they beat Slovenia (35-31), in the opening round of Group II of the Main Round. At the Malmö arena, the record holders in the competition, champions in 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2022, continued their good results in the 17th final phase of the European Championship, also organized by Norway and Denmark. They thus remain in the isolated lead of their group, with four points. Slovenia even went into the break leading 15-13, but at the restart, with four unanswered goals to make it 15-17, Sweden took the lead, and never lost again. Before that game, Iceland, with four goals from Orri Thorkelsson, a Sporting player, lost by the smallest margin to world vice-champion Croatia (29-30). The duel between Switzerland and Hungary ended in a draw (29-29), after the Swiss went into half-time leading 20-14. Iceland, Slovenia and Croatia, in that order, have two points each. Hungary and Switzerland complete the classification, with one point each. The top two teams from each of the two groups in this phase advance to the semi-finals. Third place entitles you to compete in the fifth place award match. On Saturday, Portugal, which is participating in the final stage of a European Championship for the ninth time, the fourth in a row, will face defending champions France, starting at 2:30 pm, in Herning, Denmark. The national team's best result is sixth place achieved in 2020. Spain-Denmark (5:00 pm) and Germany-Norway (7:30 pm) are the other games of the day in Group I.