After Austria lost their second match against Norway 24:38, Slovenia grabbed their chance to remain in the main round race with a clear 37:24 victory against Slovakia, their biggest-ever win at EHF EURO tournaments – their previous record was a 36:26 win against Serbia and Montenegro in 2004.
Slovenia’s victory also propelled Norway to the main round and confirms the defending champions as group winners, having beaten both Slovenia and Austria.
GROUP C
Slovenia vs Slovakia 37:24 (18:10)
- this was Slovenia’s tenth victory in 35 matches at EHF EURO final tournaments (including three on home ground in 2022) and the 12th defeat for Slovakia in 14 EHF EURO matches
- after a slow-paced start, poor of goals, Slovenia were backed by the saves of goalkeeper Maja Vojnovic and three consecutive goals by Tjaša Stanko to take a 6:2 lead
- the match was already decided at the break, as the Slovaks lacked efficiency and precision in attack and could not stop the powerful Slovenian attackers
- at 22:12 the gap was 10 goals for the first time, and Slovenia could start saving power for the ‘final’ against Austria – the margin constantly remained between nine and 12 goals
- Slovak top scorer Tatiana Šutranová was on fire after the break, netting 11 times in total
Strong defence and a goal-hungry quartet boost Slovenia
Slovenia left no doubt from the beginning that their rejuvenated team was eager for the win after a strong performance against Norway. Coach Dragan Adzic had adapted the defence well for the Slovak attack, and in the Slovenian attack, a trio stood out. Ana Abina, Nataša Ljepoja, Nusa Fegic and Tjaša Stanko combined for 28 goals for the clear win. Stanko was awarded Player of the Match, presented by Grundfos.
On the other side, the Slovaks improved only when the match had been decided – and Slovenia allowed them more shots as the defence was not that stable anymore. The second defeat after the 24:37 loss to Austria means that the Slovaks are already out of the race for the main round, and still face defending champions Norway on Monday.
I am happy about today’s win, as it was so important for making it to the main round. I hope we can continue this fighting spirit against Austria. We just need to fight and run like today, we are young, so we can run. So I hope, we will win.
In the first half we did not play aggressive enough in defence. We have repeated it in training, we talked about it in half-time, it was our fault. We concede easy goals and then it is hard for us to score easy goals on our side. It was our biggest mistake that we started playing aggressive too late in the game. In attack, many players need to go with 100 per cent to the goal.
