INNSBRUCK - Comments from Norway head coach Thorir Hergeirsson (ISL), goalkeeper Katrine Lunde, centre back Henny Reistad and line player Maren Aardahl (all NOR); and Austria head coach Monique Tijsterman (NED), goalkeeper Petra Blazek, centre back Sonja Frey and left back Katarina Pandža (all AUT) at a team photoshoot at the Olympiahalle on Monday.

NORWAY

Thorir Hergeirsson (ISL) - head coach

On their preparation playing the Golden League against Denmark, the Netherlands and Romania:

"It was a good week, with three good matches. Tough matches against Denmark, and OK matches against the Netherlands and Romania. We mostly focused on ourselves, developed our players; we have many new players and we have also experienced players, but they have new roles in the team.

"When Stine Oftedal and Nora Mørk and Veronica Kristiansen, when they are not here now, there will be others who will have bigger roles, and other kind of roles. We are trying to build a new team with many experienced but also many new players. It's quite an exciting project."

On what they learned from the Golden League:

"We learned that we have to stay humble and work hard every day to develop our play. Now we are very good when we are good, but we are a little more up and down, we are not as stable as we have been the last years because we had that team that were playing together a long time. Now it's a little more ups and downs and we have to make these downs shorter and the ups more of it.

"We have to develop through this tournament, it's not enough with these three matches in Denmark. We have to think development through the week. We try to win match by match, but we also have to develop."

On which players may take bigger roles:

"I don't like to pinpoint out the players, because for me it's the team. Some players have big roles, some players have small roles, there's a tiny tiny role but this role is also important.

"I hope that the new players which have not played a championship before, or only once, they will take new steps, bring more into the team and show the world that they have been developing.

"And I hope to see the key players in good form - (Katrine) Lunde, (Silje) Solberg in the goal, Henny Reistad and Kari Brattset Dale, Camilla Herrem, Stine Skogrand - that these players, they go first, and the young ones follow."

On the first match against Slovenia:

"We know absolutely nothing about the team they have now as a team. We know the coach; Slovenia's a handball nation, they're good in all ball activities; they have good young players and some few of the more experienced players. Actually, we know very little about them, so we have to focus on ourselves to use the little we know as good as we can."

Katrine Lunde (NOR) - goalkeeper

On it being 20 years since her first EHF EURO in 2004:

"I'm still loving it. It's a pleasure to be here with these amazing girls. I'm really enjoying it and I'm looking forward to a good championship."

On what has changed in the sport over her career:

"It's hard to answer. The style of handball is changing. Now it's more physical and more woman against woman. 

"It's maybe a bit faster, more running, and more seven against six - what I don't like. I don't like when it's goal and goal and goal. I'm a goalkeeper, I want to have the last score down, not getting more and more."

On their hopes for the tournament:

"Like always we really want to fight to go to the end. So medals, of course, is the main focus that we have. We always aim high.

"I feel it's more motivation, because you want to be on the top. It's not luck. It's more you have to prepare good for yourself and also for the team. I feel it's more good for us, we know that we have to work together and we have to take care of each other."

Henny Reistad (NOR) - centre back

On their preparation:

"We always want to do more trainings and have some more time, but that's how it is for all the teams. We're going to try to make the best out of the next days before the first game, but we're definitely feeling good."

On playing the Golden League against Denmark, the Netherlands and Romania:

"We learned a lot. Before we started we knew we had some things about the relations in attack and defence, and I really felt we developed some of those things in all the matches; what type of play for different players, who maybe should take more responsibility in different phases of the play.

"I'm really satisfied with what we learned from those games."

On the team's strengths:

"I feel like we have a lot of different strengths in the many players. That's the biggest strength, we can play a lot of different plays based on who is on the pitch for every time.

"What I'm most excited about is to see how this group can develop during the tournament. That's a strength we have had many years now as a team, and it's still a strength.

"We had a different kind of confidence in the team earlier, when we had many players who had been on the team a long time and we knew each other really well."

On the opening match against Slovenia:

"Really tough, especially the opening match, as we've seen before. That's going to be a big challenge. Of course also exciting to see the team they have. It's really different from what they had at the Olympics so it will be a challenge for us as well to maybe not have the same preparations as we normally have before those games."

Maren Aardahl (NOR) - line player

On the team's strengths, especially in defence:

"We are very movable players, strong players, and our strongest point is our smartness. We have a lot of smart defenders with a lot of experience."

On how the team has changed since the Paris 2024 Olympic Games:

"Mainly in attack we've made a lot of changes. In defence that's still our safe place, with a lot of the same players and also amazing goalkeepers.

"It's important for us to find a way that more people will take bigger roles and to take charge, and to speak up in tactics." 

AUSTRIA

Monique Tijsterman (NED) - head coach, Austria

On the team's preparation:

"So far so good. We start already in September, we had two training camps. It was really good with a lot of games. Then last Monday we started in Bratislava for three days, only training. 

"Yesterday (in a friendly match against Germany on Sunday) you saw that we want to play a match. It was really good preparation for us. We didn't start so well but at the end we made a really good impression.

"The group is fit, the girls are ready and we can't wait until Thursday."

On being a new head coach for the team:

"Of course it takes time. I started in February this year so it's nine months later. The girls know me a little bit better and I know the girls a little bit better. Now it's like OK, we are one team."

On a home EHF EURO:

"Everybody's so excited. But also there's some pressure of course because all the families are coming, and from the federation and the media side. But also from the girls' side, they want to perform. It's only once in a lifetime when you can play a home EURO so they are really motivated to work."

On the opening game against Slovakia:

"For us that will be a really important match, but also the start of the EURO. All three matches are really important, but on Thursday you know it's the start of the EURO and that makes it a little bit more special.

"I really want to play fast, I have a really good defence."

On the tournament favourites:

"For sure Norway will be in the top, but also France. Perhaps also the Netherlands although they miss some players. And for Denmark, Sandra Toft is staying at home. Four or five are favourites and then you have a large group who's really close together."

On the expansion of the tournament to 24 teams:

"It's good for handball, it's good for especially the younger players who are coming in now. With 24 teams of course you have a difference betwee the top and the middle part, and the part below. 

"But it's good because then more countries can play a EURO, experience this and can make it a translation also to the younger age categories. That's really important."

Petra Blazek (AUT) - goalkeeper

On their preparation:

"Soon it will start, it's only three days left until the first game and we are excited. It's something very big for everybody of us, also for the whole team together that we can play a European championship in Austria. It's like a dream come true."

On the mixture of experience in the team:

"It's a good mix. We have the experienced players who have already played some big tournaments, and we have the young talented players. 

"We don't have a star in the team, we don't depend on one player. It's important for us that the team has to shine if we want to go very far in the tournament.

"In some situations me, and I expect from the older players that they will take over the first step if something doesn't work in a game, that they lead the team to success."

On their strengths:

"We have very good team power. We stay together in the good times but also in the bad times. We said before this tournament that we will never give up in no moment.

"It's also important for us that the hall is full, that we have the fans behind our back."

On the first match against Slovakia:

"We know that we need four points to go to Vienna, this is our big dream, so we know that we need the first two points against Slovakia. This is it. We've focused totally for a long time now on this big tournament and it will be very important to start good into the game, and also have the fans at our back and play with self-confidence. We play at home, this is our hall, and we need the two points in the first game."

On a repeat match against Norway in Innsbruck at the EHF EURO Cup:

"Everybody knows what means Norway. They have fantastic players, they have the world's best players, they take in every big event, they play for medals, but we don't keep the focus now on Norway."

Sonja Frey (AUT) - centre back

On Monique Tijsterman joining as head coach:

"She brought a lot of structure, a lot of discipline, and also we needed some fresh air."

On the mixture of experience in the team and what she brings as a player:

"We have a really good mixture of young players, of older players. Of course I have some more experience, I have - not in the European championship, of course, but I have had situations where the pressure was really high and maybe I can share that experience with the girls in the field when it comes to that."

On what she is most looking forward to:

"I just really look from day to day, and I really hope that every match we play and every day we have here we can enjoy, and we can give our best."

On their strengths as a team:

"We have a really good collective. We hold really strong together, and for us it's also really nice that we play at home in Austria. That makes us a little bit stronger."

Katarina Pandža (AUT) - left back

On the friendly match against Germany on Sunday:

"We know Germany's a great team. We did a great job, but we have to stay better in defence and to score the easier goals. But we're on the right way."

On her first European championships:

"It's a big deal for us to play the championship at home on our field. We are a young team mixed with the experienced players. It's the right mixture."

On what she has learned in her first season in the EHF Champions League Women:

"It's my first season this year, it's a great feeling. I have the experience from the games because we had some tough games against great players, like FTC."