Olympic medallists speed through preliminary round

Most dangerous field shooter: Austria’s Reichert

While Slovenian centre back Tjaša Stanko was the top scorer of the opening phase of the competition, with 24 goals, the most efficient in the leading five was Icelandic left wing Perla Albertsdóttir. She netted 21 goals at 80.8 per cent, compared to Stanko’s 68.6 per cent. However, 12 of Albertsdóttir’s goals came from the penalty line, while only four of Stanko’s were scored from seven metres. Those 12 goals made Albertsdóttir the top scorer on penalties.

One other player among the top 10 of the competition scored at 80 per cent — Austrian left back Johanna Reichert. Reichert was also the second top scorer from the field, with 17 goals, while having far less time on court than the four other leading field shooters. She played an average of 20 minutes versus a minimum of 40 minutes average for the other four players.

In terms of shot speed, the fastest five of the preliminary round were all from left backs, and two of them were Romanian: Portugal’s Maria Unjanque at 109.12 km/h, North Macedonia’s Marija Jankulovska at 106.70 km/h, Romania’s Bianca Bazaliu at 106.09 km/h, Denmark’s Michala Møller at 105.77 km/h and Romania’s Angela Stoica at 105.70 km/h.

Looking at the teams, the two finalists from the EHF EURO 2022 scored the most in the preliminary round: Norway tallied 109 while Denmark netted 102. They also had the highest team efficiencies — 74.2 per cent for Norway and 70.8 per cent for Denmark.

Running data highlights speed as weapon for top teams

While the fastest sprint was recorded by Slovakian centre back Erika Rajnohová, at 30.24 km/h, the 2024 Olympic and 2023 World Championship finalists, France and Norway, appear to be the fastest teams overall. On the list showing the maximum speeds reached per team on a match-by-match basis, France and Norway were the only sides to register two of their games among the top 10.

However, Denmark took first place in this ranking, recording the top cumulative speed of the preliminary round against Switzerland. As their match against Switzerland was Denmark’s most challenging, seeing their narrowest win in group D in Basel, at 35:30, the fact they secured top spot in this ranking from that match shows how they played when pushed — rapid retreats in defence and quick fast breaks and counter attacks in particular.

Denmark and Norway were also among the top 10 for most accelerations across the team per game, making the list for one match apiece. But France appeared in both first and second position on this ranking. 

This data serves to confirm something already known about the top teams in women’s handball in recent years — they want to play fast, and that speed is one of the reasons for their success, both in the perfect preliminary round campaigns at the EHF EURO 2024 and across previous major championships. France, Denmark and Norway have all been among the semi-finalists at five of the last six tournaments, and the last time a team other than Norway or France took a title was the 2019 World Championship.

Looking at running distance, Swiss right wing Mia Emmenegger recorded the highest figure of the preliminary round, coming in at 15 km for the three games played. Emmenegger also had the second-fastest sprint, at 29.05 km/h, followed by three other wings: the Faroe Islands’ Turid Arge Samuelsen, the Netherlands’ Bo van Wetering and Poland’s Adrianna Górna.

Next in line for individual running distance were Czech wing Veronika Mala, Macedonian wing Sara Ristovska and two Faroe Islands players: centre back Jana Mittún and line player Pernille Brandenborg.

Mittún was an extremely valuable and much used attacking player for the Faroe Islands, recording the highest number of assists in the preliminary round, at 20, and making the second most passes, with 761. Mittún, together with Serbian left back Jovana Jovovic, was the most secure player with the ball, as the two had the highest passing accuracy, at 99.3 per cent.

Assists were the only statistic where the MVP of the EHF EURO 2022, Henny Reistad, ranked in the top five. The Norwegian back delivered 14. The top scorer of the preliminary round, Stanko, was second for assists, with 18.

Coming back to running distance, and turning to the team’s cumulative data, it is little surprise to see teams that were knocked out in the preliminary round dominating the ranking, as they would naturally spend more time in attack trying to score and also chasing their opponents in transitions. The highest cumulative distance covered by a team was recorded by Türkiye, who ran 34.2 km against Sweden, when they were defeated 19:47.

Czechia’s Novotná with most saves

One year ago, 24-year-old Sabrina Novotná had a breakthrough performance at the World Championship, recording an average save rate of 36 per cent. The Czech goalkeeper also shone in the EHF EURO 2024 preliminary round, leading the tournament for most saves, at 42. Combining her number of saves with the recorded rate of 39.3 per cent shows it was overall a strong performance from Novotná, whose team has exited the EURO.

Novotná also faced clearly the most shots, with 107 coming her way. Four players recorded save rates above 40 per cent for the preliminary round, but none of them faced more than 75 shots. Hungary’s Zsófi Szemerey had a huge 47.69 per cent against 65 shots, Denmark’s Anna Kristensen had 43.06 per cent versus 72 shots and Sweden’s Johanna Bundsen had 41.33 per cent off 75 shots. 

Photos © EHF/kolektiff