The European women's handball championship was held from 3 to 20 December in Denmark.
Initially this edition was to be organized by Norway and Denmark but due to COVID it ended up being only organized by Denmark so there would be no travel between countries.
Venues
The games were held in two venues located in the cities of Hernin and Kolding.
Jyske Bank Boxen
This venue is located in Herning and has a capacity for 15000 people.
Jyske Bank Boxen
This venue is located in HerKolding and has a capacity for 5100 people.
Teams
The qualified teams were:
- Denmark
- Norway
- France (holder of the title won in 2018)
- Russia
- Nwthwelands
- Romania
- Sweden
- Hungary
- Montenegro
- Germany
- Serbia
- Spain
- Slovenia
- Poland
- Czech Ruplic
- Croatia
Due to COVID, there was no qualifying phase and the teams were qualified through the 2018 European qualification.
Championship
The championship has different phases:
- Preliminary Round
- Main Round
- Semi finals
- Final
Preliminary Round
This phase consists of 4 groups of 4 teams of which 3 teams from each group are qualified for the Main Round.
Group A
This group was made up of France, Denmark, Montenegro and Slovenia.
France finished in 1st place with 3 wins in 3 games, Denmark in 2nd and Montenegro in 3rd.
Group B
This group was made up of Russia, Sweden, Spain e Czech Republic.
Russia finished in 1st place with 3 wins in 3 games, Sweden in 2nd and Spain in 3rd.
Group C
This group was made up of Croatia, Hungary, Netherlands and Serbia.
Croatia was the big surprise when they won all 3 games and qualified in 1st place, Hungary in 2nd and Netherlands in 3rd.
Group D
This group was made up of Norway, Germany, Romania and Poland.
Norway finished in 1st place with 3 wins in 3 games, Germany in 2nd and Poland in 3rd.
Main Round
In this phase, the 12 teams from the Preliminary Round are divided into 2 groups of 6 teams, of which 2 qualify for the semi-finals.
Group I
This group consisted of France, Denmark, Russia, Montenegro, Spain and Sweden.
In this group without suppression France and Denmark qualified for the semi-finals.
Group II
This group consisted of Norway, Croatia, Netherlands, Germany, Hungary and Romania.
Here we had several surprises, as Croatia qualified for the semi-finals, leaving two favorites (Germany and Hungary) for the competition from somewhere on the podium and with a direct classification for the World Cup.
Semi Finals
Here we have two most played games.
France won without showing difficulties to Croatia by 200-19 showing all their favoritism and Norway beat Denmark in a very balanced game by 27-24.
3rd place game
This game was played between Croatia and Denmark (the semi-final losers).
Croatia surprised everyone by achieving a 25-19 victory and consequently having won the bronze medal, this being the first in its history.
Final
We had an excellent final where the difference was in the details.
Norway managed to beat France by 22-20 becoming the European champion.
Taking into account the ratings achieved in this European, Norway, France, Croatia and Denmark have already secured their place in the 2021 World Cup.
Highlights
Now I leave here a video of the All star team, the best defenses and the best goals.