Both Germany and Brazil men come into the 2026 IHF Men’s World Championship final as their own, respective continental champions, but that is where the medal comparison stops short.

Historically, the two teams are far apart with medals at the global beach handball festival: one without medals, and one with the most in history.

The European side are only in their third-ever world championship, having finished eighth on their debut in 2006 and fourth last time out, at China 2024, while Brazil are the record medallists, with eight, winning one in eight of the 10 previous events, including five golds, two silvers and a bronze.

To get to yet another final, Brazil beat Argentina and Italy 2-0 in the preliminary group stage, but lost to Germany 2-1 (22:23, 20:18, SO 9:8). The main round saw 2-0 victories over Croatia, France and Oman followed up by a 2-0 quarter-final win over Spain and 2-1 semi-final win over host nation and title-holders, Croatia.

Germany are the only team remaining in the whole competition to be unbeaten, winning all eight of their games including two 2-1 victories against Brazil and Argentina, plus a 2-0 win over Italy in the preliminary group stage. Three more wins came in the main round, against Croatia, France and Oman – all via shoot-outs (2-1). Denmark were dispatched 2-0 in the quarter-final and then Argentina 2-1 in the semi-final.

 

The view from Brazil

“I feel innovation, because we are a new group in a new era. The time is coming for another coach maybe because it is natural [as I’ve been doing it] for so many years as in Brazil and we have many young coaches, like Thiago (de Almeida, current assistant coach),” said Brazil coach Antonio Guerra Peixe to ihf.info immediately after the final four win against Croatia to ihf.info.

“Germany is a very good, a great team. They play ‘beach handball’, it so good, it’s spectacular. We Brazilians every time are thinking of the spectacular, fair play and Germany play in this same way. In this world championship they have not yet lost and they beat us earlier when we had just nine players (Renan Pinheiro was excluded) and we lost in a shoot-out by the smallest margin, one point. We believe it will be a great match, with a shoot-out and a Brazil win. 
 
“In Brazil we make a lot innovations in beach handball, and many teams see this and repeat this. As I am older, when I work with these younger players it’s so good for me, I love this. I feel young.”

And for 40-year-old playmaker Bruno de Oliveira, it is the same feeling.

“I am not thinking about my age, because I'm feeling young,” he said. “I have a five-year-old daughter and I like to play with her, so  I don't think this (that he is old) because we have energy and when you have energy, a mental energy, everything is okay.

“In a semi-final every team, like Croatia, Brazil, Germany, the motivation is more intense. When you start in the competition, you play against Croatia. Croatia is one team but when you play against Croatia in the final or a semi-final it is a bigger team. The difference in our semi-final was the cheers from the home crowd were so intense for us and the music all the time. To do the best and concentrate in this is difficult when you have so many things at the same time.

“In the last seconds of the second set, I don't see the time. I put in the ball in my hand, and my teammate, Aldrin (Andrade) shouts; ‘go, go, go, go, go’. For me, I have time, but no; he’s helping so good.

“Just our families know about this,” he added about all the sacrifices and hard work which goes on behind the scenes to help his team get to the final.

“When people see us play and be happy, dancing and fun, sometimes don't know what's difficult to us, training a lot, three times per day, and we have to pay to play, because I'm a lawyer, you have to do vacation, it can be so difficult. 

“But as a person, it is more important; everything around beach handball. When you see Iran and United States [playing together], when you speak to other countries here you understand we are global together and we are strong together.”

The view from Germany

“I'm always giving our players a lot of responsibility, and if they tell me, I trust them. It's a feeling. I know both of them are really killers at shoot-outs, so probably Ollie would also save, but it's really just a feeling,” said Germany head coach Marten Franke to ihf.info after revealing semi-final shoot-out hero goalkeeper Moritz Ebert had taken over his original choice for the shoot-out, Oliver Middell.

“We are simply overjoyed to have already secured a medal. This is historic for the German men. The emotions are pure ecstasy, totally indescribable. Our main goal was to get a medal, so this was such a huge goal for us, because Germany men never reached this this kind of place, and now we have a medal safe.

“Today we can celebrate, but from Sunday morning we will have intensive preparation for the final. We have already played against them, so we will have to look at what we have to adapt, what we can still use from the first match. In general, I'm just happy at the moment.”

“It’s incredible,” added captain Robin John to ihf.info after their semi-final win against Argentina. “Argentina played a very good game, we played a good game and at the end, we had more. We were a little bit more lucky than Argentina.

“Last year we won the European title and The World Games, so we know this (final) situation. It's a process we've done the last two years, and now we have the chance to reach gold. It’s the last fight, and this is the fight we want to win.

“Three years ago Marten (Franke – coach) showed us games from Brazil and we looked at them and said; ‘whoa, that's great, it's really amazing’, and it's incredible that we now stand in a final against maybe Bruno (de Oliveira) or maybe Nailson (Amaral), and these are the players we looked up to for the last four or five years. Maybe we can beat them. We hope so.

 

What the statistics say

Brazil like third in the overall points scored table with 388 in eight games (48.5 on average per game), just behind them are Germany in fourth (383/47.8), while the same two teams top the points conceded table, Brazil on top with 300 (37 on average per game) and the Germans in second (325/40).

In terms of actual goals scored, there is little to separate the two teams, with Brazil in third (197/24.6) and Germany in fourth (196/24.5).

Moving on to the style of goals, Germany have scored the third-most spinshots (118/14.7), Brazil down in 12th (76/9.5), but as expected, in-flights are led by the South Americans, with 78 (9.7), well ahead of Germany, who are in 10th (31/3.8).

Germany have tired the most one-pointers (14/1.7) and scored the second most (9/1.1), while Brazil sit seventh in scoring the most (6/0.7).

Behind those statistics are the top-scorers, with Renan Pinheiro Brazil’s top-scorer, sitting fourth in the table with 119 points in seven games, 18 goals from spinshots and 33 from in-flights. Lennart Wormann is down in sixth for Germany, on 109 points (36/16).

Lars Zelser’s 19 assists (2.38) is just ahead of Bruno de Oliveira (14/1.75), while Bruno is third in the in-flight assist charts 43/5.38), Zelser down in ninth (19/2.38).

Both de Oliveira and Pinheiro feature in the statistical MVP charts created by the IHF results partner Tomasoft, de Oliveira fourth and Pinheiro sixth. Wormann is in eighth currently.