The young Swiss team have a hard time in Vienna — after their first two historic EHF EURO wins in Basel, they now have three straight defeats, losing all games by eight goals or more. Still, they are on a learning path and will get the most out of the strong encounters in the main round.
GROUP II
Switzerland vs Netherlands 29:37 (17:24)
- Switzerland were off to a good start, leading 3:1, but when Yara ten Holte started making save after save, the Netherlands soon led 9:4 10 minutes into the game — powered by Zoë Sprengers' fast breaks
- the young Swiss team had a problem keeping up, particularly in attack, while the Netherlands were easily finding empty space and creating clear goal opportunities
- the game itself was not one of defensive excellence, especially in the first high-scoring half, while the attack efficiency dropped in the second half
- Switzerland's game flow changed when their tournament's top scorer Tabea Schmid earned a direct red card, but only two minutes later there was another — this time Judith van der Helm ended her time on the court
- the Netherlands further extended their half-time lead and won by eight goals, courtesy of all 14 field player who scored at least once
- the Player of the Match, presented by Grundfos was Sprengers, who netted seven times for the Netherlands, while Daphné Gautschi led Switzerland with six goals
Dutch dream lives on
The Netherlands stay in the running for the semi-finals at the Women's EHF EURO 2024 following their convincing win against Switzerland, their fifth victory in the tournament.
The 2016 runners-up did not come with high expectations as Lois Abbingh and Angela Malestein explained, but having lost only to Norway proves they are doing a good job. They could have a chance to seal their third-ever semi-final appearance when they face Denmark in the last game of the main round.
Thanks to Zoë Sprengers, Dione Housheer and Angela Malestein, the Netherlands scored their highest number of goals in the main round, and the second-highest in the tournament following a 43:23 win against Ukraine in the preliminary round.
We didn't defend good, or not enough aggressive, especially in the first half. The second half was then better, because the second half we only lost with one goal. But I think the defence is really a big difference because we got 24 goals in the first half. That's too much.
We ran a lot and scored a lot of goals in fast break. We played together, we had good cooperation, and good individual performances in the first half.
