19:45
Andreas Palicka is voted as Grundfos Player of the Match – without his 15 saves (31 per cent) Sweden wouldn’t have even been in the position of leading into those intense closing minutes of full-time.
He goes down the line of French players and talks to most of them, giving Samir Bellahcene a hug, and there’s one for Elohim Prandi too. That’s sportsmanship.
19:42 | END OF EXTRA TIME
France 34:30 Sweden
France found their rhythm and flow again in extra time and the immediate impact of Dylan Nahi in the first five minutes was what they needed to take the win and a chance to play for the European title for the first time in a decade.
19:39
With Sweden desperately trying to close up the widening gap, Felix Claar shoots – it looks as though Remi Desbonnet may have stopped it, but the referees go to video review to double-check. The goal is not given and France lead 32:28.
19:33 | France 30:28 Sweden
France, buoyed up by their last-second reprieve, have shot out to a big lead again with three goals scored by Dylan Nahi. Jim Gottfridsson scored Sweden’s only goal of the first period of extra time.
Andreas Palicka trips up as Sweden take possession just before the buzzer, and seems to have hurt his ankle. Tobias Thulin does a very quick warm-up, but Palicka comes back on court.
19:27
Dylan Nahi, who has played very little so far and so has fresh legs, is the first to score in extra time and France regain the lead.
19:23
Right, we go into extra time. First off, two five-minute periods.
19:21 | FULL-TIME
France 27:27 Sweden
Jim Gottfridsson almost made it a two-goal win inside the last 15 seconds, but he missed and France were awarded a direct free throw on the buzzer – which Elohim Prandi scored.
We are into extra time!
19:17
Hugo Descat gets one back, but Sweden are taking their time to transition back to attack. They hold the cards while France are running out of time with 60 seconds left.
19:15
France earn a seventh penalty, and Andreas Palicka saves it again. That’s his third penalty save against Hugo Descat in a row. With three minutes to play, Sweden lead 25:24.
19:10
Remi Desbonnet has come on as the French goalkeeper after a period with no saves for Samir Bellahcene.
19:07
After a Swedish timeout, Felix Claar hammers in a 111 km/h rocket from the nine-metre line and Sweden have their first lead since the 5th minute at 23:22.
19:03
This clip is the earlier penalty save, but Andreas Palicka has just done it again. His big-tournament experience is starting to show for Sweden.
19:00
The score in this half is 11:5 in Sweden’s favour, as Felix Claar scores his seventh goal and equalises again at 22:22. The body language of the two teams has completely shifted as Sweden sense they have momentum.
18:57
Sweden concede their fifth penalty, but Andreas Palicka saves Hugo Descat’s shot – and then saves the rebound effort too, to a huge cheer from the crowd who are mostly supporting Sweden.
Coming into the fourth quarter of the game, France lead 21:20 and you can now vote for the Grundfos Player of the Match.
18:53
Jonathan Carlsbogard equalised at 18:18, 39 minutes in, but France have dug in. Samir Bellahcene made his first save in a while and unanswered goals from Nedim Remili and Ludovic Fabregas have restored a three-goal lead for France.
18:48
Sweden, defending well, have got back to within one goal with a 6:1 run since the restart. France takes a timeout, and during that time Jim Gottfridsson is talking intently to the Swedes. From French domination in the first half they are now under serious pressure.
18:44
Two years ago in the semi-final, Sweden led by three goals at the break and by five at about this point in the second half. But France fought right back into the game and lost it at the very end when Ludovic Fabregas failed to score. So we can’t discount a repeat, and so far it’s going better for Sweden with Max Darj contributing a couple of fine goals and Andreas Palicka starting to make more saves. It’s 18:15 after five minutes of the half.
18:38
The second half is throwing off now. Sweden return to their starting seven, Karl Konan and Valentin Porte join the French defence.
18:31
Some of Felix Claar’s 17 minutes on court – can he make a difference in the second half?
18:24 | HALF-TIME
France 17:11 Sweden
France were arguably favourites before today, having come into the game unbeaten, but they are dominating, forcing Sweden into mistakes and their defence helping Samir Bellahcene to shine. EHF journalist Courtney Gahan has more:
“A couple of key periods from individuals have made the difference in the first semi-final. Samir Bellahcene made a series of saves from around the ninth minute to the 13th, which helped keep Sweden out of France’s goal and enabled the Olympic champions to score an unanswered run of goals that opened a clear gap in their favour. Sweden changed their back court line-up, with Felix Claar and Lukas Sandell coming in for Jim Gottfridsson and Albin Lagergren — and Claar having a huge impact quickly.
With four goals in his first seven minutes on court, Claar spearheaded Sweden’s comeback into the game, but the period with no goals cost the defending champions and accounts for the difference we still see at the break. A decisive advantage for France, but handball and particularly this EHF EURO have shown us that the distance is far from insurmountable, especially in a semi-final.”
18:20
Elohim Prandi jumps to shoot and as the ball leaves his hand, Guillaume Gille calls a timeout, so the shot does not count. Sweden then steal the ball and Hampus Wanne scores – 16:11 to France.
18:17
Nedim Remili was voted as Grundfos Player of the Match in France’s last main round game, and he’s showing his worth again tonight. France lead 16:10.
18:11
Better from Sweden: they’re back to within four goals of France, are starting to force some mistakes by their opponents, and are finding ways through the French defence. Felix Claar has been especially important in the last few minutes.
18:06
France now lead 12:6 – they are scoring easily for the most part, with Hugo Descat on particularly good form.
18:03
Glenn Solberg calls a timeout as France take a 9:4 lead. Sweden’s shooting accuracy has not yet been at the level it needs to be to win an EHF EURO semi-final, especially with Samir Bellahcene doing a great job in goal.
17:58
Samir Bellahcene makes a big save and bounces back to the bench, with colleague Charles Bolzinger standing up in his seat in the stands to offer congratulations. Bellahcene’s breakout tournament continues to go pretty well!
17:56
France lead 5:4 and are in attack, but have both Hugo Descat and Luka Karabatic sitting out suspensions.
17:50
Sweden’s defence has been excellent so far and they took the early lead, backed up by a couple of saves from Andreas Palicka. But a tenacious French attack means Ludovic Fabregas is able to level the game at 3:3.
17:44
Throw off is imminent!
France’s starting seven are Samir Bellahcene, Nikola Karabatic, Nedim Remili, Dika Mem, Hugo Descat, Ludovic Fabregas and Yanis Lenne; Sweden’s are Andreas Palicka, Hampus Wanne, Max Darj, Daniel Pettersson, Jonathan Carlsbogard, Jim Gottfridsson and Albin Lagergren.
17:35
The teams will be announced very, very soon! The stands are filling up and there’s a lively atmosphere developing.
Follow every action on the match ticker: France vs Sweden
17:30
Both teams have all their star players available and named in the 16-man match-day squads. That leaves France’s Charles Bolzinger, Timothey N’Guessan and Benoit Kounkoud, and Sweden’s Jonathan Evardsson and Simon Möller in the stands.
Some goal-scoring milestones to watch for: five goals would make Nikola Karabatic the first man to score 300 EHF EURO goals. Kentin Mahé needs 11 and Hampus Wanne 13 to reach the 100-goal milestone.
Meanwhile, Jim Gottfridsson needs only one goal to break into the Swedish all-time top five EHF EURO scorers. He’s currently at 106 goals in his career, behind Niclas Ekberg (107), Staffan Olsson (109) and Johan Petersson (111). Stefan Lövgren’s record of 203 is some way off, however!
17:10
Right, we’re into the semi-final build-up as the teams warm up on court. This match will feature two of the greats of the sport and we can’t wait to see them go head-to-head once more at an EHF EURO.
16:55
As Sweden come on court to start their semi-final warm-up, take a moment to read about the milestones set in Hungary’s fifth-place victory over Slovenia.
