Players hope for lucky hands at EHF EURO 2018 Draw

When the Women’s EHF EURO 2018 Final Tournament Draw takes place at the ‘Maison de la Radio’ in Paris on Tuesday (12:00 hrs, streamed live on the EHF EURO Youtube channel and the EHF EURO Facebook page), four players from participating nations will be drawing the balls out of the four pots.

So Denmark’s Line Jorgensen, France’s Blandine Dancett, the Netherlands’ Jessy Kramer and Norway’s Silje Solberg will be hoping they have lucky hands when they decide how the 16 teams will be spread out over the four groups of the preliminary round.

The teams from pot 1 (Norway*, Hungary, France*, Denmark*) will be drawn by Line Jorgensen. The experienced right back, who is returning from CSM Bucuresti to her native Denmark to play for Esbjerg next season, has been part of the national team for more than a decade. If Denmark could go all the way in France in December, it would be their fourth EHF EURO title - but first since 2002. They finished fourth in Sweden two years ago.

The teams from pot 2 (Romania, Spain, Serbia, Montenegro) will be drawn by Blandine Dancett. The 30-year-old right wing from Nantes Loire Atlantique will be eager to help France to another international success. A year before hosting the EHF EURO 2018, France won the World Championship in Germany in December, the best boost the team could ask for heading into their home tournament. They have finished third three times, including in Sweden in 2016, but are yet to win the European title.

The teams from pot 3 (the Netherlands*, Germany, Russia, Sweden) will be drawn by Jessy Kramer. Having made her national team debut in 2007, the Toulon left back has been an integral part of the rise of Dutch women’s handball in recent years. The Netherlands lost the final of the previous EHF EURO event to Norway, the same opponents which defeated them in the final of the World Championship 2015, the bronze-medal match of the 2016 Rio Olympics, and the semi-final of the World Championship last year. They are eager to bag their first major title in France in December.

The teams from pot 4 (Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia) will be drawn by Silje Solberg. The Norwegian goalkeeper, who leaves Paris Issy Hand for Siófok next season, is looking forward to add a third straight EHF EURO title to her already impressive list of achievements. Norway won the European title in 2014 (in Hungary and Croatia) and 2016 (Sweden) while also taking gold at the World Championship 2015 (Denmark). Only a defeat in the final against France prevented them from also winning a record-equalling fourth world title last December.

*Norway, France, the Netherlands and Denmark have already been placed by the organisers into a group, so that the preliminary-round groups look as follows:

The draw procedure can be downloaded here.

The Women’s EHF EURO 2018 takes place from 29 November to 16 December, with the preliminary round to be played in Nantes, Nancy, Montbéliard and Brest.

Individual tickets for all matches are available. For the first time at a Women’s EHF EURO, a ‘one match = one session’ has been established by the organising committee. Tickets can be bought via www.ehf-euro.com.

Ticket questions can be directed to billetterie(at)EHFEURO2018(dot)fr (general public) and billetterie.groupes(at)EHFEURO2018(dot)fr (for group requests).

More information about the Women’s EHF EURO 2018, its host cities and venues as well as surrounding activities is available on www.ehf-euro.com.