EHF European League Women group phase starts with exciting clashes
The 2023/24 season of the EHF European League Women has reached its group phase, which will start on the first weekend of 2024. Eight games will be played, four on Saturday and just as many on Sunday.
While most teams had to go through qualifications to reach the group phase, four sides were seeded there directly, so they will play their first European matches this season.
Storhamar play with great certainty and accuracy in their established attacking game. If we don't manage that, it will be difficult. Furthermore, we have to deal with 7vs6 in their counter phase. We need to stop those two elements to win the match.
On Sunday we will start the group phase against the current Croatian league leader Podravka, whose team has a very big international experience in the EHF European League and the EHF Champions League as well, and a lot of their players have participated in the IHF Women's World Championship too. They are a very physical team, but they can play fast handball as well, so I expect a very hard game. I hope that with our fans support we can make a surprise and we can win the match.
Braila has been waiting for a long time for this moment to be back in the EHF European League. We are all super excited and happy that it is finally starting. First match it’s always the hardest but we would like to open this year with a victory. Chambray have a really good team this year. I have met them before and they have always shown quality play, really aggressive attack, fast handball and strong defence so we need to be ready for everything they have
I am excited that we are starting the competition at home. We’ve worked for a whole year to reach this competition and we fully deserve to enjoy it! I want us to play with joy and collect as many points as possible. This competition is full of surprises and I hope that Gloria will be a pleasant surprise this year! The first match is always the hardest and I hope we get through this and the emotions of the debut with a victory!
We have returned with renewed strength after the holidays and are ready for the next difficult period. We prepare for every match, but the most important thing is to take care of ourselves. If everything is fine with us, anyone can come here and we will do everything for success and to keep the points at home.
We are really looking forward to starting the new season and the group stage in the EHF European League. Our first game this season will give us a tough start away against Costa del Sol Malaga. They have a Spanish team that showed in the qualification rounds that they are one team that will be in contention for a quarter-final place in this season's tournament. Their two victories against Larvik and Copenhagen were persuasive.
We have been waiting for this game for weeks, the team is very excited about this group phase. We want to continue enjoying this competition with our fans.
