LIVE. Romania – Portugal, the first match for the tricolors at EURO 2026

• In Romania, the European Championship matches will not be televised. They will only be broadcast on the Voyo streaming platform
• All Romanian games will be able to be watched in liveTEXT format on GSP.ro. All relevant information from the tournament, declarations, results and updated standings will also be found here.

Qualified for the second time in a row at a European tournament, Romania was assigned to an “impossible” group, along with Denmark, Portugal and North Macedonia.

Romania – Portugal, the first match for the tricolors at EURO 2026 » LIVE from 19:00

The national team led by George Buricea plays today at EURO 2026, against Portugal, the team that took 4th place at the last world championship.

Romania gathered for the EURO since December 18 and played 3 preparation games, one with Italy and two with Hungary.

The Romanian national team has lost all the matches, but the coach George Buricea hopes that in today's match against Portugal, the tricolors will quickly get over their debut and practice modern handball.

George Buricea, before Romania – Portugal: “We have to play a modern handball!”

George Buricea has at his disposal a group of 18 players, including Ionuț Iancu, Robert Militaru, Dan Racoțea, Cristi Ghiță, Daniel Stanciuc, Ionuț Nistor or Călin Dedu. Unfortunately, the selector cannot rely on Demis Grigoraș, Andrei Drăgan, Liviu Caba, Gabriel Ilie and Erik Pop for the final tournament, all of them being injured.

George Buricea, national coach/Photo: Imago Images

“It is the first match at the Euros, there will be a lot of fear, a lot of nervousness and probably more mistakes. I hope for a very good match and at the end when we draw the line, I hope we will be satisfied that we gave everything, that we practiced modern handball, at speed, with a strong defense“, said selector George Buricea for GSP.

A possible first “7” for Romania: Iancu, Vereș, Buzle, Stanciuc, Ghita, Nistor, Dedu.

Portugal is super favorite against Romania

Portugal is the national team with the most progress in the last 10-12 years in men's handball. The team prepared by Dinamo's coach, Paulo Pereira, has the Lusitanian as a selector since 2016, and the Portuguese placed 4th at the last World Championship and 7th at the previous European Championship.

Portugal national team. Photo: Instagram

In their final EURO 2026 warm-up match, Portugal beat Spain 34-31 and Pereira's men showed they can hope to qualify for the semi-finals and the European tournament.

For today's match with Romania, Portugal is the favorite at the bookmakers with odds of 1.02-1.04, while the tricolors are priced at 15.00-25.00. The two teams also met in the preliminaries for the EURO, and each team won their home match.

A probable first “7” for Portugal: Capdeville, Fernandes, Martim Costa, Rui Silva, Kiko Costa, Areia, Frade.

The complete batch called by the selector George Buricea:

• Goalkeepers: Ionut Iancu (Dinamo), Mihai Popescu (Potaissa Turda)
• Far left: Alexandru Andrei (Poli Timisoara), Denis Vereș (Potaissa Turda)
• Far right: Sorin Grigore (CSU Suceava), Ionuț Nistor (Dinamo)
• Enter left: Tudor Botea (Minaur Baia Mare), Andrei Buzle (Dinamo), Robert Militaru (Dinamo), Răzvan Trif (Poli Timisoara), Dan Racotea (Górnik Zabrze)
• Enter right: Ionuț Stănescu (Wybrzeze Gdansk), Cristian Ghiță (Potaissa Turda)
• COORDINATOR: Daniel Stanciuc (Dinamo), Ștefan Cumpanici (Minaur Baia Mare)
• pivot: Călin Dedu (Dinamo), Robert Nagy (Minaur Baia Mare), Andras Szasz (Poli Timisoara).
• Andrei Drăgan, Dan Vasile, Demis Grigoraș, Gabriel Ilie, Liviu Caba and Erik Pop are absent for medical reasons

Groups of the European Men's Handball Championship:

• Group A: Austria, Germany, Spain, Serbia – (Herning, Denmark);
• Group B: Denmark, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania – (Herning, Denmark);
• Group C: Czech Republic, France, Norway, Ukraine – (Baerum, Norway);
• Group D: Montenegro, Slovenia, Switzerland, Faroe Islands – (Baerum, Norway);
• Group E: Croatia, Georgia, Netherlands, Sweden – (Malmo, Sweden);
• Group F: Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Poland – (Kristianstad, Sweden).
  In parentheses, the city and country where the matches will be played.