Women's EHF EURO 2014 stars on Sunday - Many great teams, no favorites! | Handball Planet
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Women’s EHF EURO 2014 stars on Sunday – Many great teams, no favorites!

Two fantastic weeks are ahead of European handball community. The best 16 teams will fight for the EURO trophy in the six Hungarian and Croatian cities, with the final weekend in Papp Laszlo Arena in Budapest, where also Women’s EHF CL F4 taking place. The fact is that no clear favorites could be mention before the start of the tournament, on Sunday in Debrecen and Gyor.

„COLD WAR“ IS HISTORY

The last big rivality in women’s handball between Norway and Russia is over at the end of the previous Olympic cycle. Last two years, women’s handball has seen the new two big nations – Montenegro and Brazil, but also medals from Serbia, Hungary, come back of Denmark with Jan Pytlick, furious Polish performance which finished with fourth place at WCh 2013.

The time of unbeatables are now just a history. There are lot of the teams who, not just only, dreaming about the semi-final spot. Two host nations, Croatia and Hungary are in do-or-die moment, but also huge pressure is on the shoulders of Norwegian team, who has to show whether or not is capable to stay among TOP nations. Same with France, who couldn’ find the rhytm since Olympic Games in London, even with the new head-coach Porte after Krumbholz’s era.

DANISH YEAR?

Denmark is again TOP nation, Pytlick did a great job, and this tournament could be only the beginning of golden period which has to finish on home soil 2015.

Serbian team struggling with the injuries, but apart of that, it’s not realistic to expect that Lekić and Co. could reach the final, as they did 12 months ago at WCh 2013 in front of home fans. Of course, distance between „die brave for the semis“ and „come back to reality“ will be measured by the number of the girls who will be capable to play (Lekić, Damnjanović, Liščević, etc).

Montenegro is definitely one of the biggest favorites to reach the semis alongside Croatia and France in the Zagreb’s part of the draw. Dragan Adžić invented his own system which giving results in Buducnost and NT. Katarina Bulatović and the girls are hungry for more after Olympic silver and European gold. Reigning champions want to prove that early elimination at WCh 2013 (TOP 16 against Denmark) was only a bad day.

TOP 6 TEAMS:
Croatia, Montenegro, France, Denmark, Norway, Hungary

OUTSIDERS:
Slovakia and Ukraine

GROUP A (GYOR):
Hungary, Spain, Russia, Poland

GROUP B (DEBRECEN):
Norway, Denmark, Romania, Ukraine

GROUP C (VARAŽDIN):
Croatia, Sweden, Poland, Germany

GROUP D (OSIJEK):
Montenegro, Serbia, France, Slovakia

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