17 nations bidding for glory at the Women's 16 European Open

17 nations are set to begin their quest to claim the Women's 16 European Open title at the event in Gothenburg, Sweden on Monday 4 July. 

Hungary will not defend the Younger Age Category title that they claimed in 2018, when the competition switched to a Women's 16 event for the first time, but teams from a host of strong handball nations, including hosts Sweden, France and Norway, will participate in Gothenburg from Monday 4 July until Friday 8 July.

On the opening day of the Women's 16 European Open, each team will play two matches in the preliminary round. The first match will begin at 08:45 CEST on Monday 4 July when Romania face Slovenia in group A.

The teams will play one more match in the preliminary round on Tuesday before the main and intermediate rounds commence on Wednesday. Although the top three teams from each of the four preliminary round groups will advance to the main round, the group winners from the two main round groups will qualify directly for the final on Friday 8 July.

On the final day of the competition, there will also be a bronze medal match and placement matches to decide the final ranking for positions 5-8 and 9-12.

Preliminary round groups

Group A: Romania, France, Slovenia, Estonia and Latvia

Group B: Montenegro, Sweden, Netherlands and Faroe Islands

Group C: Norway, Portugal, Iceland and Poland

Group D: Switzerland, Czech Republic, Spain and Finland 

Women's 16 European Open live on EHFTV

All matches from the Women's 16 European Open in Gothenburg will be streamed live on EHFTV. Check out the full playing schedule and the group standings here.