Poland cruise to victory against Italy

In the only qualification match for the 2013 Women's World Championship on Thursday Poland had no problems overcoming Italy 32:11.

However, the start had been promising for Italy. Led by a strong performance of Monika Pruenster the host led 4:2 after eight minutes.

But Poland fought back, seven unanswered goals made it 9:4 and at the break the team of head coach Kim Rasmussen was leading 15:6.

For the first ten minutes of the second half the game was even, before Poland powered away and finished the game with a 21-goal margin.

"We played against a very promising rival, but our defence was the key to success. We are pleased with the result and the performance we have shown. It was very important to get these two points as we have a tough match against Belarus ahead of us," Poland's Patrycja Kulwinska said.

Poland had their most successful goal scorer in Alina Wojtas who netted nine times. Italy's Giusy Ganga scored three goals.

Italy will now play Lithuania on 7 October. Poland take on Belarus also on 7 October. In Group 4 Portugal play Turkey on October 6.

All matches are part of phase 1 of the Women's World Championship Qualification Europe. This phase will be played in four groups: three with four teams and one with three teams.

The winner of each group will go through to the play-offs, where they will join 12 of the 14 teams already qualified for the World Championship play-offs. The top two teams ranked at the EHF EURO 2012 will join Serbia as hosts and Norway as reigning champions qualifying directly for the event.

Group 1 and Group 2 will be played in a tournament format while Group 3 and Group 4 are played in a home and away format.

A complete overview of all groups and matches can be found on the eurohandball.com here.

The Women's World Championship will take place from 7 to 22 December 2013 in Serbia.