The preliminary round concluded at the 2026 IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship concluded on Thursday in Granollers, with France and Portugal winning their matches against Spain and India respectively and progressing to the quarter-finals.

Group A
Spain vs France 0:2 (3:11; 6:7)

France confirmed their credentials for being a title contender, with a statement win against Spain, which needed a golden goal in the second set to be confirmed.

Hosts Spain did everything they could, but failed in the end to take advantage of their most important chances and penalise their opponents, especially after taking a 3:2 lead in the first set.

From the fifth minute onwards, France did not concede any point, going on a 9:0 unanswered run, powered by Mathieu de Cillia and Fatih Cuhadar, who both ended up on eight points in the match.

In the second set, Spain balanced the score, but the issue was their spin shots, with only 25% efificency on their spinshots, opening a door for France to mount a comeback.

De Cillia and Cuhadar managed to provide a platform for France to come back, with the former scoring the golden goal, after the two sides ended in a deadlock, 6:6, after the regular 10 minutes.

France finished first in the group standings, while Spain ended second, and the hosts are due to see a battle against Brazil in the quarter-finals, while France face Portugal in the next phase of the competition.

Group C
Portugal vs India 2:0 (9:4; 8:2)

After losing their maiden match against Brazil, both Portugal and India were in dire need of a win, with the team which emerged victorious from this clash progressing for the quarter-finals.

For India, a win hear would have meant finishing at least eighth, but avoiding the last place, where they finished in the previous two editions of the IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship. But the Asian side had little to show in the first half, throwing the ball to the goal only five teams.

Portugal’s most experienced players, Joao Jerónimo and Ricardo Queirós, were their top scorers, and after a 2:0 India run to start the match, Portugal scored four unanswered points to turn the match on its head.

As Portugal’s goalkeepers conceded only two more points, the gap grew higher and higher, with the European champions settling a 9:4 win in the first set and solving half of the equation.

Rodrigo Vieira took control of the second set for Portugal, scoring four of the first five points, with India getting their first points on the scoreboard in the middle of the set, when Portugal was 7:0 up.