27.06.2011, 06:47
Women’s 17 ECh 2011: Preliminary Round Summary

Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Romania, Norway, Netherlands, Hungary and France are in the Main Round.

Women’s 17 European Championship 2011: Preliminary Round Summary

The 10th Women’s 17 European Championship in the Czech Republic started on 23 June and will continue until 03 July 2011. Playing venues are Brno with the sport hall Nová Hala Vodova and Zlín with Sportovní Hala Euronics.

The Preliminary Round with four groups with four teams each came to a conclusion on 26 June 2011. The two top teams of every group go on to the Main Round, while the teams placed third and fourth meet in the Intermediate Round.

These Rounds are to be played on 28 and 29 June 2011. After their conclusion, the remaining cross matches, placement matches, as well as semi-finals and final will be played between 01 and 03 July 2011.

All 24 matches in Zlín and Brno had the modern concept of handball in common. All teams were performing with a tremendous effort to effectively use fast breaks. The course of every game was based on the quality of the involved teams, their psychical conditions, tactical maturity and team coordination.

Group A
(in Sportovní Hala Euronics, Zlín)

Russia was the most dominant team of the group who went through all the matches without a defeat and demonstrated their big ambition for a medal. All of their opponents, even the strong Germans and Sweden left the court with a defeat and a ten goal-margin at least.

The second team qualified for the Main Round is Sweden. They clearly defeated Germany, but were not strong enough to crack the hard defence of the Russian national team and therefore finished the Preliminary Round on second place. Austria and Germany matched each other in the last match. After an equal first half Austria began to produce too many mistakes which finally sealed the German victory.

All teams are now preparing for the next row of matches. "In the Main Round we will meet opponents with more experience on the international stage then we have. We will intensify our training, but we are not afraid of anybody," said Russian coach Vyacheslav Kirilenko.

Austrian Coach Roman Filz summarized: "We can learn lot from matches against teams like Germany or Russia. Now we plan to relax and to get our heads free of too many thoughts and then do our best to get the highest possible result in the top eight."

Group B
(in Sportovní Hala Euronics, Zlín)

Sunday evening also decided the final result of Group B. The Czech Republic matched Portugal in an extremely dramatic game. In the end the hosts won and are going to Intermediate Round from third place. Technically perfect prepared Denmark got first place followed by Romania in this group.

Denmark, another favoured team is conscious of the strength of future opponents. "As we are meeting Sweden in our next match, will have to perform at our highest level," said the coach of Denmark, Eriksen. Also Romania are preparing for the next days. "All teams in our group are strong opponents who will play all the matches with a strong idea of victory. There are only small differences among the levels of the teams, so we will try hard to gain every victory," said Romanian coach Pop.

Group C
(in Nová Hala Vodova, Brno)

Norway probably showed the best handball in Brno, performed on the highest quality level. In all of their three Preliminary Round games they won without any slightest problems and therefore got to the position of favourites of the championship. To the top eight they will be accompanied by the Netherlands, who defeated Spain and Poland. Although these matches showed some weak spots of the Dutch team, they got their qualification deservedly. Probably the saddest situation in Brno had Polish team who didn’t win a match even though they were always playing with maximal enthusiasm.

Group D
(in Nová Hala Vodova, Brno)

In group D, the clear domination of Hungary and France was obvious since the first days of the tournament. Both teams were expected to play the last match on similar level and with high quality, but in the end the duel for the first place was clearly in Hungarian hands. Their main strength is playing on the edge of physical resistance, which is not seen very often in this age category. The question is, whether the Hungarians have enough power to play like this until the end of the championship. If so, the can reach very high.

Find all results from the Women’s 17 European Championship 2011 here.

Free Live Streaming

The Women’s 17 European Championship 2011 will provide handball fans with free live streaming of the whole tournament. The matches can be viewed on the official website.

Further Information

For all information on the event please visit the official event website.
http://www.euro2011.cz/en/index.aspx

TEXT: Jan Hrabalek / Alzbeta Vejrostová