Norway headline record field at Women’s Beach Handball EURO 2019

Norway will face the biggest ever field at a Women’s Beach Handball EURO when the Scandinavian side aim to defend their title from 2017 in Stare Jablonki, Poland, next week.

There are 20 national teams on the starting grid for the 2-7 July 2019 championship, which is more than ever before in the 19-year history of the competition.

The official tournament website, beachhandballeuro2019.com, provides an overview of all 20 teams and the groups for the preliminary round. The top-three ranked teams of these groups advance to the main round before the event heads into its knock-out phase with the quarter-finals. The court plan is available for download here (PDF).

All matches will be streamed live on ehfTV.com and all scores can be followed on the dedicated beach handball liveticker.

Norway headline the list of tournament favourites

After finishing on the podium in five of the last six editions, Norway headline the list of tournament favourites. The 2010 world champions had to wait until 2017 in Zagreb, Croatia, to finally win their first gold medal.

The defending champions, who were silver medallists at last year’s world championships in Russia, will play Netherlands, Croatia, Romania and Turkey in Group A.

After winning silver two years ago, Poland want to go one step further this time. In Group B the hosts will meet Hungary, which won gold in two of the last three editions - in 2013 and 2015. Other teams in the group are France, Portugal and Cyprus.

Spain took home bronze from the European Championship in 2017 and reached the semi-finals of the world championships the next year.

One of their main competitors in Group C will be Greece, which stunned the beach handball world last year as they won the world title upon their first participation. Greece stranded in the quarter-finalists in Zagreb two years ago but definitely want to have their say about the medals this time.

Italy, Switzerland and Slovenia complete this group.

Denmark, the runners-up from 2011 and 2013 and semi-finalists two years ago, are expected to be one of the main candidates to advance from Group D, where they will take on Russia, Ukraine, Germany and North Macedonia.

Women’s Beach Handball EURO 2019 schedule

2/3 July - Preliminary Round
3/4/5 July - Main Round
5 July, 16:00 hrs - Quarter-finals
6 July, 11:00/13:00 hrs - Semi-finals
7 July, 16:00 hrs - Final