Slovenia book EHF EURO ticket; three teams extend winning runs
The penultimate round of the Women's EHF EURO 2026 Qualifiers threw off with six matches played on Wednesday. Slovenia became another team to book their ticket to the final tournament, while Germany, Sweden and Spain maintained their perfect record in the competition.
I'm so proud of my girls because they played well and good in this match. They managed with a lot of pressure and gave their best. I'm so satisfied with how the girls play, because we show that we have potential to play against everyone.
I think we missed the mark, ball in hand. Our runs lacked sharpness and there was a lot of hesitation. With a team where there’s such a gap in experience between the two sides, it’s now up to us to ensure we analyse this moment properly, that everyone understands why it didn’t work, and that this forms the basis for our future work. We can’t claim to be a European handball nation after just five matches.
We prepared very well for this match and were ready right from the start. I’m pleased with our performance and glad that everyone got a chance to play. Belgium have a good team; we mustn’t forget that. They have potential but still need to develop a bit. On Sunday, we’ll be celebrating our qualification at home.
It was a great match from our side. We played with good tempo, were solid in defence, and took our chances well. I’m very happy with the performance.
I’m disappointed with many aspects of our game. We were too soft for too long, and that’s where we lost it. Defensively, we didn’t perform at the level we needed. We had a clear plan, knowing their strengths, but it didn’t work tonight.
The match started well for us; we were essentially neck and neck until the 15-minute mark. We were able to get back on defence, and in our positional defence, we managed to hold our own against the Swedes. But once again, thanks to their more experienced players and superior skill, the Swedish team managed to pull ahead.
We had a few periods where our performance dropped a bit. That can happen when you face unconventional opposition. Ukraine’s players looked for different situations than what we’re used to. Defensively, we could have been a bit stronger in our duels. Offensively, we struggled somewhat against their high defense. We handled that better in the second half. But we won the game by 11 goals, and of course I’m pleased with that.
What happened today in Kozani is unbelievable. We are very happy. If someone had told us that we would have performed like this and lost by such a small margin to Spain, we would have thought them crazy. I am very proud of all of them. We are not stopping here, we will enjoy it as much as we should because on Sunday we have to play another important match.
We did not play a good game, we did not have concentration and the opposing team took advantage of it. However, we won and that is what we keep from today’s match.
I feel we didn’t start well and fell into a big deficit, but little by little we got back into the game, and our team play helped cut the gap. The Austrians were quick, but we tried to give everything to achieve the best possible result. We worked together, played as a team, and supported one another, but in the end there are differences in level between the teams.
We played a very good game. All the players fought in the match. We did a good job in defence, in counterattacks. Now we have to concentrate on Sunday’s match against Greece, to win it and to finish the qualifiers with a win.
