Germany managed to defeat France (38-34) for the first time at a European Championship final tournament since 1998 to end the title defense of Les Bleus.
Both sides counted on physically strong defenses, but when Germany added speed to their attacks, the gaps started showing in the French defense.
When France lost pace in their game, goalkeeper Remi Desbonnet became a crucial factor, boosting his side with many spectacular saves, and with 13 minutes left, France was still within a chance of restoring parity with the score 27-26 in Germany's favor.
The epic battle between the two sides was decided by a double-strike of Lukas Zerbe and Julian Köster to give the Germans a four-goal gap at 36-32, after Wolff had saved two shots.
The game was dominated by Juri Knorr (10 goals for Germany) and Dika Mem (11 for France). Knorr was, deservedly, voted as Player of the Match. Rémi Desbonnet made 10 saves through the game, compared to four for each of the German goalkeepers, but Andreas Wolff's presence in the goal towards the end was important.
Croatia had a troubling start and was behind throughout the first half against Hungary to give Sweden final hopes of reaching the semi-finals (if Croatia lost or were left to settle for a draw).
The Croatians had merely a shot efficiency at 58 per cent in the opening 15 minutes, while the Hungarians used seven-against-six tactics to try and keep their lead until half-time, while scoring through fast breaks
But in the second half, Dagur Sigurdsson's team managed to edge ahead of the Hungarians in a very tight finish (27-25) to leave the Swedish hosts heartbroken before their final match against Switzerland.
