Türkiye and Slovakia take the biggest wins

The first Qualification Europe Phase on the road for the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship, which will take place in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, has been concluded. The last five participants for Phase 2 were confirmed on Sunday: Austria, Slovakia, Iceland, Türkiye and Italy will be in the pot when the play-offs will be drawn at the final weekend of the EHF EURO 2022 on 19 November in Ljubljana.

Previously Ukraine, Portugal, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina had booked their tickets for the next stage. A total of 10 pairings will be drawn in Ljubljana, with those eleven teams of the EHF EURO 2022 which have not directly qualified for the World Championship. The aggregate winners of those ten play-off pairings will qualify for the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship.

Finland vs Austria 28:35 (13:16)
(first leg: 22:37 – on aggregate 50:72)

It was a start-to-finish victory for Austria in the second leg in Helsinki. From the fourth minute on, the visitors were ahead, and after their clear 37:22 home victory on Thursday, Austria took an aggregate victory of 72:50. With a margin of 15 goals to play with, Sonja Frey & Co. acted confidently. Goalkeeper Petra Blazek was her usual strong self. After the break, Austrian coach Herbert Müller gave the young players a lot of playing time. The lead even increased to eight goals by the middle of the second half.

Latvia vs Slovakia 17:43 (11:26)
(first leg: 21:46 – on aggregate 38:89)

Slovakia easily advanced to the second phase of qualification. After Wednesday's 46:21 victory in Šala, Slovakia outclassed the Latvians by an even greater margin in the away match – it was the biggest win ever for the team of coach Jorge Duenas. With ten goals, Barbora Lancz was best scorer of the victors. Latvia’s only lead was at 1:0. After less than 15 minutes, the Slovaks already had a seven-goal advantage, 11:4, followed by the first double-digit difference at 19:9 and a 20-goal margin at 34:14 in minute 43.

Israel vs Iceland 24:33 (11:14) (played in Iceland)
(first leg 34:26 – in aggregate 67:50)

24 hours after their 34:26 win, Iceland were victorious again and booked their ticket for the next stage without any problems. Goalkeeper Hafdis Renötudottir backed up the hosts of the doubleheader with eleven saves in the second leg. Though Iceland were constantly ahead – intermediately by four goals – the first half was quite equal, and Israel remained close until minute 41 and a 20:22 score line. But then, the hosts easily decided the match with an 8:2 run for 30:22. Top scorers were Mor Shaul with six goals for Israel and Andrea Jacobsen, who scored seven for Iceland.

Türkiye vs Great Britain 44:16 (21:7)
(first leg 39:14 – in aggregate: 83:30)

Türkiye gained the biggest of all aggregate results in this round – and finally were 53 goals ahead of the Great Britain team. Though the deal had already been sealed after the first leg of the double-header on Saturday in Türkiye, the host remained unstoppable. Five players scored four or more goals, topped by Kubra Sarykaya, who netted seven times. The British side only score five goals in the first 25 minutes of the second half.

Italy vs Bulgaria 33:29 (18:13)
(first leg: 26:19 – in aggregate: 59:48)

Italy were already on course for victory after the first leg in Varna by a 26:19 win, and had also decided the second leg by minute 32, when the advantage was seven goals at 20:13 – and the overall lead was +15 goals. Form that moment, Italy started rotating, which was partly the reason why Bulgaria managed to reduce the gap to only four goals at the final buzzer. Ramona Manojlovic scored seven times for the victors, while Bulgarian Mari Tomova became top scorer of the match with nine strikes.