Victories required to carry teams to main round berths

With Hungary set to finish on top in group A, North Macedonia, Türkiye and Sweden are left to battle it out for the second spot, with the latter having the biggest chance at the moment with one point more on their account than the former.

In group C, it is all eyes on Poland versus Spain, as the two will play to join France in the main round. Portugal, playing their second EHF EURO and first since 2008, will end their campaign against current world champions France in what will be the last game for the group in Basel.

While defending champions Norway are already confirmed winners in group E and will carry two points to the main round, Austria and Slovenia battle for the second ticket to Vienna in a direct duel on the final match day in Innsbruck.

GROUP A

North Macedonia vs Hungary
Monday 2 December, 18:00 CET, live on EHFTV

• the co-hosts are through to the main round as the winners of group A after securing a dominant 32:25 win against Sweden
• Katrin Klujber scored eight goals against Sweden to move into fourth place in Hungary's all-time top goal scorers' list at EHF EURO, ahead of Anikó Kovacsics, with 82 goals
• the Macedonians and the Hungarians last met in a friendly match back in 2012 with Hungary winning 33:28
• the Lionesses still have a slim chance of making the main round, but need to beat Hungary to have any hope of progressing while also hoping for Türkiye to defeat Sweden
• Kristijan Grchevski’s squad made 12 technical errors in the match against Türkiye and his players need to improve, both in defence and attack

Türkiye vs Sweden
Monday 2 December, 20:30 CET, live on EHFTV

• a win for Türkiye would see the debutants progress to the main round; Sweden will progress with a win or draw
• Türkiye earned their first-ever EHF EURO point with a 25:25 draw against North Macedonia, but missed a maiden win after leading for the majority of the game
• Sweden and Türkiye met in the Women's EHF EURO 2022 qualifiers, when the Swedes won both matches with ease
• Swedish coach Tomas Axnér identified poor defence as one reason for the big defeat by Hungary in the previous round
• in the first two games, Sweden scored four more goals than Türkiye (53 to 49) but at a poorer efficiency rate (54.6 per cent compared to 59.8 per cent)

GROUP C

Poland vs Spain
Monday 2 December, 18:00 CET, live on EHFTV

• this match is a direct battle for a place in the main round, with both sides entering the game on two points
• based on the results against the other teams in the group, Spain might be the stronger side: Poland lost decisively to France (22:35) while Spain were only narrowly defeated in the last minutes (22:24), and Spain beat Portugal 30:24 while Poland took a 22:21 win
• Poland have not reached the main round at the Women’s EHF EURO since 2014, while Spain have not missed it since 2002
• in 2022, it was a 22:21 preliminary round win against Spain that saw Poland celebrate their first victory in the final tournament since 2014, but they were then indirectly knocked out by the “Guerreras” based on Spain’s result against Germany
• with her seven goals in round 2, right back Monika Kobylinska jumped up the list of Poland’s all-time top scorers at the EHF EURO, now sitting in fourth with a career tally of 39

Portugal vs France
Monday 2 December, 20:30 CET, live on EHFTV

• having beaten both Poland and Spain, France, with four points in their account, are through to the main round and will go through to group I in Debrecen with the maximum points as winners of group C
• even with a victory against France, Portugal cannot progress to the main round, as either Poland or Spain or both are sure to increase their points tallies and Portugal have yet to collect any points
• after the first day of round 2 games, France goalkeepers Laura Glauser and Hatadou Sako had recorded the joint-highest number of saves, with 29; their combined average across the two matches is 40.28 per cent
• Portugal’s Joana Resende was one of the top scorers from the field after the opening day of round 2, with 11 goals
• this is the first mutual clash between Portugal and France since 1988, when the only game between the two occurred, ending with a France win

GROUP E

Slovenia vs Austria
Monday 2 December, 18:00 CET, live on EHFTV

• both sides have two points on their account after losing to Norway and defeating Slovakia (with the same result of 37:24); as Slovenia have the better goal difference, a draw would be enough for Adžic’s team to proceed
• Austria’s last appearance in a EHF EURO main round was in 2006, while Slovenia latest reached the stage on home ground two years ago
• this is the tenth official matches for the two teams: Austria won six times (the latest in 2012), Slovenia three times including last year’s duel at the World Championship (32:27)
• the sides’ current top scorers are Tjaša Stanko with 16 goals for Slovenia and Ines Ivancok-Soltic, who netted 12 times for Austria
• Slovenia count on eight players from RK Krim, Austria have six Hypo Niederösterreich players in their roster

Slovakia vs Norway
Monday 2 December, 20:30 CET, live on EHFTV

• after two wins against Slovenia (33:26) and Austria (38:24), Norway booked their main round ticket as group winners already
• in contrast, Slovakia are out of the race for the next stage after losing 24:37 against both Austria and Slovenia
• while Norway won 36 of their last 40 matches at EHF EURO final tournaments and are record winners with nine trophies, Slovakia only took one win in 14 matches at three EHF EURO participations
• Tatiana Šutranová scored 11 goals for Slovakia against Slovenia and is currently the second best scorer of her team below Barbora Lancz, who netted 16 times
• the two coaches met in the EHF EURO 2014 final, when Thorir Hergeirsson steered Norway to the gold medal, beating Jorge Duenas’s Spain 28:25 in the final; Duenas took over Slovakia in 2022

Photos © EHF/kolektiff