History on the line in last rounds of qualifiers
The last stretch in the race for the Women’s EHF EURO 2024 is here, with rounds 5 and 6 of the qualifiers to be played this week, deciding the last 13 berths up for grabs at the final tournament in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland at the end of the year.
With all groups but one seeing the leaders already qualified, it is almost all about who will take each group’s second ticket and which sides will end up among the four best third-ranked teams.
Second match against Croatia, this time at home. It will be a difficult game as the dynamic of the opposing team is quite greater. We, for our part, are called upon within a short period of time to work as best and as targeted as possible in order to cope with the two games in front of us. Our goal is of course qualification and we will all give our best to achieve it"
We played very tight against Romania a month ago and Romania secured the first place in our group. Now, we have the first very important encounter against Greece, and then Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday to conclude this qualification phase. Versus Greece, the quality is on our side, and we should not have a problem with the victory, but we need to show that on the court.
When we talk about 'learning from defeats', we use a phrase that coaches don't like but I must also say that we want to make the most of the match against France. At their home match we came out really dazed. They didn't spare themselves and they won't do it either here in Italy. However, I believe that the first experience helped us overcome that impact, of playing against world-class champions, which can be shocking for a young group like ours.
Our main purpose for these last two games here in Lithuania and at home against Azerbaijan is to continue staying at the top of the group and to be prepared for what is coming next, that we are all focused on: the Paris 2024 Olympics Qualification Tournament in Torrevieja. These are going to be great tests to prepare for such a difficult qualification tournament and we are trying to do as well as possible in both games, obviously, distributing players' efforts, but also trying to have a good review of our playing systems and mechanisms
We approach the final two matches of the qualification eager to validate the work done throughout the year with a respectable score between the two nations. The task will be difficult as Iceland are a very good team with talented players, but we aim to demonstrate a positive spirit and maintain the joy of playing among the best.
We are looking forward to these two weeks with two European Championship qualification games and three Olympic tournament qualification games. We are happy to know we are already qualified for the EHF EURO 2024, but we want of course to finish with two more wins
Anyone who knows me knows that I always want to win. Especially against our neighbours from Austria, of course. But they will throw everything into celebrating their first win under their new coach. We will have to run a lot and are looking forward to a great game.
