20.03.2013, 03:08
32 teams and the will to succeed

Qualification for Women's 17 EHF EURO in Poland throws off on Friday, 22 March - live stream from Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia, live ticker for even more matches

32 teams and the will to succeed

The race is on for the remaining 15 spots at the Women's 17 EHF EURO in Poland from 15 to 25 August.

32 teams will go into the eight three-day qualification tournaments starting on Friday, 22 March, hoping that they will the be ones holding the upper hand in the end.

Many matches can be followed either via live stream provided by the federation or via a live ticker.

Hosts, Poland, are the only team that is qualified already.

From groups 1 to 7 the two top-ranked teams will qualify for the final tournament while only the first ranked team from group 8 gets a berth in Poland.

Two years ago, at the Women's 17 EHF EURO in 2011, Russia placed first ahead of Denmark and Norway.

This year, Spain are the hosts for the qualification tournament in group 1 where they will face Sweden, Bulgaria, and Italy.

Czech Republic host the tournament in group 2 where they will play against Romania, Turkey, and Azerbaijan.

All matches can be watched via a live stream on tvcom.cz.

Russia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Switzerland will clash in group 3. The tournament is played in the Russian city of Zvenigorod and matches can be followed on rushandball.ru.

The Montenegrin city of Bar plays host to the tournament in group where Denmark, Austria, Estonia, and Montenegro, now coached by three-time Women's EHF Champions League winner, Maja Savic, fight for the two spots in group 4 that guarantee qualification.

Iceland welcomes Latvia, Netherlands, and Germany to the country's capital, Reykjavik, for the tournament in group 5, with all matches being streamed live on sporttv.is.

Hungary, Portugal, Lithuania, and FYR Macedonia battle it out for the two qualification ranks in group 6 that takes place in Szigetszetmiklos, Hungary.

The Hungarian handball federation offers a live stream for this event. Handball fans can follow all the matches on the federation's website.

Slovakia are the hosts of the qualification tournament in group 7 for which they welcome Norway, Greece, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Slovakian Handball Federation also offers a free live stream of all six qualification matches via http://live.huste.tv/intro.

Group 8 will be played in Serbia with the hosts taking on Belarus, France, and Finland. It is likely to be a hotly contested qualification tournament as only the first ranked team qualifies for the final tournament in Poland.

A complete overview of all matches including throw off times, referees and delegates can be found here.

The draw for the Women's 17 EHF EURO in Poland will take place on the first weekend of April (6/7).

TEXT: EHF / ts