SUMMARY: Montenegro, France, Netherlands advance on dramatic night
The teams in groups C and D of the preliminary round at the Women's EHF EURO 2022 have played their second match of the championship on Monday, with Netherlands, France and Macedonia locking up their main round spots, and Poland keeping their hopes alive with a dramatic come-from-behind win over Spain.
23:11
One more time, confirmation that Netherlands and France have advanced from group C tonight and Montenegro from group D:
22:51
Day 4 of the Women's EHF EURO 2022 is done and dusted. Here are the results in overview:
22:39
A dramatic finish to the second round of matches in the preliminary round! Read how Poland made the impossible possible against Spain, and how France were flying past Romania:
22:19
Ohhh, watch these final moments of Spain vs Poland again:
22:04 RESULT | SPAIN VS POLAND 21:22 (12:12)
What. A. Match. Spain go from heaven to hell in 10 minutes, from four goals up to two goals down, and ultimately miss the chance of an equaliser in the closing seconds.
This result leaves it all to play for on Wednesday, as Spain are on zero points, and Poland and Germany level on two points; two of them will go through, one will go home...
22:01 RESULT | ROMANIA VS FRANCE 21:35 (11:17)
France ease past Romania and have the place in the main round confirmed tonight. Estelle Nze Minko woth six from six the most effective player.
21:58
Team timeout Spain. Unbelievable collapse by Spain, who have gone from 20:16 up to 22:20 down! Two minutes left...
21:54
Wow, we are back to 20:19 at Spain vs Poland. This one really going down to the wire. Tense scenes in Podgorica!
21:47
20:16! Spain have opened a four-goal gap with 10 minutes left on the clock. That result, or any Spanish win, would send both Spain and Germany through from group D - alongside Montenegro of course, who qualified earlier tonight.
21:39
In the game in Podgorica, neither team can open a gap. Spain currently leading 15:14, this is still anybody's match. Poland have beaten Spain only once in the last 19 years, can they do it again?
They probably need more of this, from the end of the first half:
21:33
France are smoothly sailing towards that main round spot. They show some brilliance and just don't give Romania a chance to come back, 24:16 at the moment. That would leave it all to do for Romania in the last group game against North Macedonia - and whoever team from those two advances, will do so with no points to carry over.
18:42 HALF-TIME | GERMANY VS MONTENEGRO 12:15
Germany were 3:1 up, but otherwise will not have the best memories of this first half. An impressive display again by Montenegro. Here is what our EHF journalist Björn Pazen tells us from the Maraca Arena:
"The “eighth player” on the stands was again a huge boost for Montenegro: the fans pushed their team to the limit, as they had already done against Spain. But in contrast to their opener, the hosts could not pull ahead easily, but were down 1:3 – before they fully started their engines. Like in their lucky win against Poland, Germany caused too many mistakes in attack or failed against strong goalkeeper Marta Batinovic.
Montenegro counted on their tall back court shooters Djurdjina Jaukovic and Djurdjina Malovic and wing Ivona Pavicevic, who combined for 10 of 15 Montenegrin goals before the break. But Germany managed to reduce the gap after a time-out to 6:5 and 9:8, thanks to another top-level performance of goalkeeper Katharina Filter. Germany could not profit from their saves and the solid-rock defence, as they still lacked efficiency in attack despite constant rotation on the back court positions. The hosts pulled ahead to 14:10, but had to work hard for every goal. While Germany rotated a lot, Montenegro did not use that many players – this could lead to a lack of power of key players in the second half."
18:37 HALF-TIME | NORTH MACEDONIA VS NETHERLANDS 9:17
The Flying Dutchwomen took an early 6:1 lead and never looked back from there. Here is how EHF journalist Adrian Costeiu in Skopje sees this match:
"After the first seven minutes and 56 seconds of the first half, North Macedonia had the ball for five minutes and 51 seconds and the Netherlands for one minutes and 47 seconds. The score on the board? 6:1 for the Netherlands, who took advantage of each mistake made by the co-hosts and delivered excellent fast breaks. A good start from goalkeeper Yara ten Holte, who had five saves from the first six shots she faced, with a 83% saving efficiency also helped a lot.
But it was also North Macedonia who really did not get going at all. Their attack has once again failed to deliver the goods with a 27% efficiency. Once again, they had too many turnovers, including one in a good moment, when they could have cut the gap to only four goals, 9:5. Instead, the Netherlands used two fast breaks in a row to build a seven-goal lead, 11:4. From that point on, it was game over, as the Dutch side is leading 17:9 at the break.
With the win close and a main round berth even closer, the Netherlands will probably rest some key starters in the second half and use the last 30 minutes to prepare for the last match, against France."
18:27
Meanwhile in Skopje, Netherlands building on their early lead to soar ahead 14:7 against North Macedonia. And keep an eye on Inger Smits, already on seven from seven!
18:21
The fans in the Moraca Arena are getting what they have come for. Montenegro 9:7 ahead against Germany in a passionate encounter so far.
18:13
Hold on, Montenegro now on a 5:0 series to lead Germany 6:3! What an intense match this already is.
18:09
Contrasting starts to the two matches: Netherlands quickly build a 6:1 lead over North Macedonia after eight minutes, but Germany and North Macedonia completely in the balance at 3:3.
17:51
You got to love the pre-match visuals from our social media department:
17:37
And in group D, the Macedonians' co-hosts Montenegro are also in action at 18:00 CET when they take on Germany in Podgorica in a duel between two teams that both had a winning start into the tournament Saturday. So, the winners tonight are sure to advance to the main round.
In a fabulous atmosphere in the Moraca Arena, Montenegro downed Spain in impressive style. Can German, who had a late win over Poland, stand the heat tonight?
Just like with the North Macedonia vs Netherlands match, there have only been three previous encounters between Germany and Montenegro. The last two were at an EHF EURO: in 2012, Germany won 27:20; in 2014, Montenegro won by the exact same result, 27:20.
17:28
Four teams from groups A and B have been confirmed for the main round: Norway, Hungary, Sweden, and Denmark. Which teams from C and D will follow?
In C, Netherlands started with a close win over Romania and will be eager to seal their berth in the next phase before their last group match against France. The Dutch opponents in Skopje at 18:00 CET? Home crowd favourites North Macedonia! And they want to wipe out their opening-round defeat.
Both teams have not a rich history against each other: only three matches, and the most recent was 12 years ago... Interestingly, two of these three games back then ended in a draw, while the Dutch had one win, all the way back at the 2001 IHF World Championship.
17:15
Only 45 minutes until throw-off. Let's begin our final countdown to tonight's matches with our daily best ‘women in sport’ image, a cooperation between EHF and its photo agency partner, kolektiffimages during the Women's EHF EURO 2022. Here is today's picture:
Mateja Kavcic is one of many women behind the scenes of the Women's EHF EURO 2022 ❤️. She is making sure all the accommodation needs in Ljubljana and Celje are covered while working as a PE teacher from Mondays to Fridays.
10:15
Good morning and welcome to the live blog for day 4 of the Women's EHF EURO 2022!
Four teams from groups A and B have already booked their spot in the main round on Sunday, and we are sure to see the first teams from groups C and D do the same tonight. Yes, we are heading back to Skopje and Podgorica for some more thrilling preliminary round matches. Here they are:
