Austria and Serbia reach EHF EURO, four best third-ranked teams confirmed
The Women's EHF EURO 2026 Qualifiers came to an end with 12 matches across Europe. Austria and Serbia secured wins in the final round to book their tickets to the EHF EURO from second place in their groups. In the race for the final four spots among the best third-ranked teams, Iceland — who beat Portugal — as well as Ukraine, North Macedonia and Greece, who went through despite defeats, completed the final line-up.
Therefore, the Women's EHF EURO 2026, taking place from 3 to 20 December, will feature co-hosts Poland, Romania, Czechia, Slovakia and Türkiye, alongside the EHF EURO 2024 medallists Denmark, Norway and Hungary, as well as France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Switzerland, Faroe Islands, Austria, Serbia, Iceland, Ukraine, North Macedonia and Greece.
My return to the French national team went well; this week was amazing. I loved getting to know the new girls, and we worked hard. We played a serious game against Kosovo, and we were even more focused tonight - it was a truly great week. I love the French team, and I never doubted my desire to come back. I love experiencing these kinds of emotions and sharing them with the crowd like we did tonight. That’s why I play at a high level: to share these moments with the fans, to represent France, and to share it all with my teammates.
I just have to admit France are a very good team. We had difficulties getting scoring chances and France simply ran over us, they are excellent in counter attacks. Credit to my players, they fought throughout the 60 minutes, but we still need to improve much before we can seriously challenge teams like France. Third place in the group was OK, but unfortunately it was not enough to for us to reach the finals.
We’re very happy with the win. I’m satisfied with the week behind us and with qualifying for the European Championship. Today, all the players got their chance, made the most of it, and that’s what matters most. The atmosphere was great—thanks to everyone! Now, we are looking for the draw the next week!
We have a completely new team; we came here with a really young squad. In the first half we tried to keep up, but later it didn’t go our way. In the second half, Croatia showed why they were the favorites and deservedly won—congratulations to them! On our side there was a bit of fear and nervousness as well; as I said, we’re a very young team.
I scored a goal, my family was there, my little sister was there. I would have really loved to play alongside her. But that doesn’t make it any less fun. I enjoyed it. I already knew some of the girls on the team, so it was a lot of fun. It’s just a regular handball game; I just want to start off calmly and then we’ll see what happens.
I’m not satisfied with our performance; we should have played better. Especially on defence and a bit more calmly on attack. But then again, when you’re playing against the Netherlands, you just know beforehand that you’re going to get punished.
The first half wasn’t good, but the second half was really strong. We showed after the break that we are the better team.
It was a special game for me personally, and I’m simply happy that the players delivered – especially with that second half performance.
We definitely need to keep working and spend more time together as a team. We are still very young, which makes it difficult to avoid mistakes and turnovers. Going forward, we need to stay more focused throughout the entire match. We had a good start, but we lost our level in the second half – and that’s something we have to improve.
I am very proud of how our girls played in all the qualification matches, including the last one against North Macedonia. They approached it with full commitment. I believe that through these qualification matches our team gained greater squad depth and competitiveness. I believe we will be capable of playing against any team at the EHF EURO.
Honestly, we played really badly in this game and weren’t focused on what we were supposed to do. But no matter what, the most important thing is that we’re going to the European Championship, and we’re very happy about that. I hope we can fix everything before then. I’m really happy and proud of my team.”
I had goosebumps when the whole arena was singing my birthday song. Though the match was decided quite early, we never stopped. We were all hungry – and for the EHF EURO 2026, we are hungry for even more. All our matches are sold out, the fans create a great atmosphere, this is what it's all about. Today we are happy, and now hope for the draw event on Tuesday that we do not have to travel that much.
Germany play on a different level compared to us, they are runners-up of the World Championship. But I am proud of the way we played. We tried a lot and we scored 25 goals against such a top team. OK, we also conceded 45. But still, we played our first ever EHF EURO qualification phase 2, we learnt a lot, and we really developed. We fought, we never gave up, this is what counts.
I am satisfied with our performance in these qualifiers. There were many excellent moments, and although we suffered an unexpected defeat in Iceland, overall we achieved everything we set out to do and finished the qualifiers in the right way, with a convincing win against the Faroe Islands, even though many younger players were included in the senior team.
We expected more from this match and hoped to put up a stronger fight against Montenegro. However, Montenegro played an excellent first half, and although we were better in the second half, we were not able to challenge them more seriously.
It was a tough start, but the character of this team is so great. The momentum we got in the second half resulted in a great second half. The girls gave it their all.
It's not possible to take much positives from this game, but we can take the positives from the qualifiers. We need to do better in situations like this.
This was my final match for the national team and it was very emotional. I'm happy my teammates fought hard and played well. The most important thing was to secure qualification.
I want to congratulate Serbia on winning. From the first minute they played well, fought hard and kept the distance until the end.
It was such a fun game to play. Of course it was emotional hearing the national anthem the last time as a player as I have always enjoyed playing for the national team. I was really enjoying the game and it was great to share this moment with Jamina (Roberts) as we have played so many games and Championships together. Of course I am also pleased that we won and went through the qualification campaign with a clean sheet.
Today was a tough game for us, it showed us how far we still are from the best teams. But with such young team we must aim higher and to summarise the qualification campaign we are sad that we lost two times by one goal against Ukraine. Congratulations especially to Rita Rakauskiene who played her last game for the national team for a nice career and for everything she has done for this team.
I want to thank the girls because I think they have made a tremendous effort. It has not been an easy week — the trip to Greece was not simple, and Ester’s injury, to whom I send my best wishes from here, affected the group deeply.
Even so, they have trained harder and better every day. I think we started the match a little hesitant; we had to adjust and rise to the level required, and we did that. I only have words of gratitude. I believe the group is working very well, they have welcomed me warmly, and the only thing I am thinking now is that I hope the next training camp comes soon so I can be with them again.
Congratulations to Spain. They are a very good team, and I wish them success in the European Championship. We are a fourth-level team. We are much better than what we showed today, but we were missing two of our seven key players, plus another player who was injured. My girls are true fighters. The result in the end is not what matters most, but I am not disappointed because this week, honestly, it was not only about sport.
That was truly incredible today. We played incredibly well in defence in the first half. Our link-up play with Lena Ivancok worked perfectly. We’re really very proud. This is the fourth major tournament since 2023. It’s simply brilliant. I think we’ve taken a step forward in this qualifying campaign. We can say with pride that we’ve rightly qualified for the European Championship. Throughout the whole qualifying campaign, the only game we didn’t play well was actually the second one against Spain. But we’ve learnt from that, and today we can celebrate.
This was the first time that we played this type of game. We were very nervous. We didn´t know what to expect. This is the first time in our history that we've qualified for the EHF EURO. We are very happy for that.
