Road to first 24-team Women’s EHF EURO begins
The road to the historic Women’s EHF EURO 2024 — the first ever with 24 teams — begins this week, with rounds 1 and 2 of the qualifiers set to be played from Wednesday through Sunday. On Wednesday, the qualifiers open with 11 matches, with most seeing first-time clashes between unfamiliar rivals.
New team week, new challenges ahead of the EHF EURO 2024 Qualifiers. Our task is always the same, to qualify for the European Championship. We are back together after six months. Most of our players play really good and tough matches in their clubs and that’s really important. We have good quality players and two wins are our job.
This will be a good chance for younger players to prove themselves and show their qualities. Our team has spent a lot of time together, we know the system and I believe we will continue with the good work we have put in so far.
We certainly saw from the moment of the draw that it is an incredibly tough and beautiful group because, it is true that we are playing against the Olympic champions and against the eighth-ranked teams at the European Championships who have already beaten us in the double match for the world qualifiers, but this was what we want to do: play against strong teams with whom we could compete and with whom we could try to start taking some steps into the handball elite.
We must have desire and courage and above all a growing self-esteem with these matches because we have to play action after action trying to do the best things every time we can
I am looking forward to starting this new path in qualifying for the 2024 European Championship. Against Lithuania we will try to arrive in the best conditions to play good handball. It is important that we put into practice all the concepts and ideas that we have worked on in previous concentrations.
We have had previous work periods that have been important and positive for the team and, now, the time has come to demonstrate what we have learned in these first two matches.
We are all here to compete and that is what we are looking forward to. The moment of truth has arrived and we want to do a good job on the track.
We are slowly getting ready for those two games. No one should be underestimated, and we enter the preparation of matches with that mindset. This is a well-coordinated team, there will be no problem to prepare the matches in the best possible way and achieve the desired results.
It's a difficult match awaiting us against Iceland. We know it. They put a lot of aggression in defence and play the transition phases quickly. We will try to implement the things we have worked on. We play without pressure, and we must enjoy ourselves on the field.
We are aware that the Norwegian national team is coming to Debrecen with a very strong squad. In our last match against the Scandinavians at EHF EURO 2022, we played a good first half against them. Our goal now is to maintain a good performance not only in the first half, but throughout the match. To play against the defending world- and European champion is always a big challenge and also a great experience.
We have benefited in recent years from the fact that we had a certain consistency within the squad. Our goal is to make good use of the EHF EURO Cup in view of the World Championship at the end of the year.
