A vastly more experienced national team than that of Switzerland, for whom the EHF EURO 2024 was only the second major championship, Norway went to the break with a clear lead of 11 goals and the expected victory was never in doubt. The Paris 2024 Olympic champions thereby took their seventh win in as many games played at the EHF EURO 2024, and now look ahead to the semi-final against Hungary.
GROUP II
Switzerland vs Norway 40:24 (13:24)
- the fact it was Switzerland’s 10th game at the Women’s EHF EURO compared to the 121st for Norway illustrates the difference between the sides, and Norway lived up to their role as favourites for the win comfortably, hitting a 10-goal advantage by the 25th minute
- although they led throughout the game, Norway clearly had the semi-final in mind, as they used their usual starters and their second string mostly appeared only for the second half
- Switzerland goalkeeper Lea Schüpbach had the same number of saves as Norway’s Silje Solberg-Østhassel in the first half (seven), but had a lower efficiency as she faced many more shots
- record EURO title winning goalkeeper Katrine Lunde was replaced by Eli Marie Raasok for the match; Raasok played the second 30 minutes and recorded 11 saves at a rate of 52 per cent, earning the Grundfos Player of the Match award
- adding seven goals versus Norway to her overall tally, Switzerland line player Tabea Schmid ended the main round as the fourth top scorer of the EHF EURO 2024, with a total of 44
End of historic EHF EURO for Switzerland
The EHF EURO 2024 marked the Swiss women’s team’s second appearance at a major championship, following their debut in the event in 2022. In 2022, Switzerland placed 14th and farewelled the tournament in the preliminary round following two losses and one draw.
That draw occurred in the last match of the preliminary round, and was against none other than Croatia, who Switzerland knocked out in the last game of the 2024 preliminary round to secure their first main round participation.
Having started the tournament on the home court in Basel, as one of three co-hosts of the EHF EURO 2024, Switzerland had the best conditions possible to make history for their country. The team delivered memorable performances, defeating the Faroe Islands in round 1, losing to Paris 2024 bronze medallists Denmark and EHF EURO 2022 runners-up Denmark by just five goals, and then beating Croatia in the crunch match to book their main round place. With their results, Switzerland secured 12th at the Women’s EHF EURO 2024.
We did a good impression in some parts of the game and that was also the main goal. For us it was important to have the right body language during the game and not look so much up at the scoreboard, to have these small goals that we wanted to do: to take down some of the tempo; also to take down not doing so many technical fouls.
I requested professionalism, always prepare good and take serious every opponent. We played with all our 16 players and they were very focused when on the court. We talked about it before the game, it's important that even if you play only 15 minutes you give 100 per cent. The whole team did good.
