The 2014 European Women's Handball Championship was the eleventh continental tournament for women's national teams, organized by the European Handball Federation. The second jointly hosted edition in the competition's history took place in Hungary and Croatia from 7 to 21 December 2014.
Norway won their sixth title after beating Spain 28–25 in the final. Sweden defeated Montenegro 25–23 to capture the bronze medal.
Norway's victory ensured their qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympics. However, they later won the 2015 World Women's Handball Championship, vacating the European champion Olympic berth which fell to Spain as the runner-up. The two next-best placed teams, Sweden and Montenegro, earned spots in the Olympic Qualification Tournaments.
Host selection Initially there were two applicants for the tournament, Slovenia and Turkey, with none of them having the experience of organizing a continental event before. However, both candidates withdrew their offers later, thus the host nation could not be selected on the 10th Ordinary EHF Congress between 24 and 25 September 2010 as it was planned.
Instead, the European Handball Federation re-launched the bidding process. As a result, six federations (Croatia, Hungary, Iceland, Slovakia, Sweden and Turkey) showed intention to host the championship. Until the final deadline of 28 January 2011, EHF received three bids from four federations:
/ (joint bid)
After a thorough analysis, Slovakia was excluded from the race first, as they failed to ensure a minimum of four arenas that meet the strict criteria for the European Championship. The EHF Executive Committee decided between the two remaining aspirants on its meeting on 9 April 2011, awarding the right to host the 11th Women's EHF European Handball Championship to Hungary and Croatia.
Venues CountryCityArenaCapacityRound Hungary Budapest László Papp Budapest Sports Arena 12,500 Knockout stage Debrecen Főnix Hall 8,500 Group B, Main round Győr Audi Aréna 5,000 Group A Croatia Zagreb Arena Zagreb 15,200 Main round Varaždin Varaždin Arena 5,200 Group C Osijek Gradski vrt Hall 3,538 Group D
Qualification
Qualified teams Country Qualified asQualified onPrevious appearances in tournament1 01Host nation 01Host nation 02Winner of Group 6 02Winner of Group 2 03Runner-up of Group 7 02Winner of Group 3 ) 02Winner of Group 1 02Winner of Group 7 03Runner-up of Group 2 02Winner of Group 4 02Winner of Group 5 03Runner-up of Group 4 03Runner-up of Group 3 03Runner-up of Group 6 03Runner-up of Group 5 03Runner-up of Group 1 1 Bold indicates champion for that year.
Seeding The draw was held on 19 June 2014 at 13:00 local time in Zagreb, Croatia.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4
Squads
Referees 12 referee pairs were selected:
Referees Dalibor JurinovićMarko Mrvica Jiří OpavaPavel Válek Dennis StenrandAnders Birch Charlotte BonaventuraJulie Bonaventura Robert SchulzeTobias Tönnies Péter HorváthBalázs Márton
Referees Kjersti ArntsenGuro Røen Diana-Carmen FlorescuAnamaria Stoia Evgenij ZotinNikolaj Volodkov Peter BrunovskýVladimír Čanda Andreu MarínIgnacio García Kürşad Erdoğanİbrahim Özdeniz
Preliminary round The playing schedule was released on 4 June 2014.Match schedule
All times are local (UTC+1).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Main round All times are local (UTC+1).
Group I
Group II
Knockout stage
Bracket
All times are local (UTC+1).
Semifinals
Fifth place game
Third place game
Final
Final ranking
{| class="wikitable" !width=40|Rank !width=180|Team |-bgcolor=#dfefff |align=center||| |-bgcolor=#ccffcc |align=center||| |-bgcolor=#ccccff |align=center||| |-bgcolor=#ccccff |align=center|4|| |- |align=center|5|| |- |align=center|6|| |- |align=center|7|| |- |align=center|8|| |- |align=center|9|| |- |align=center|10|| |- |align=center|11|| |- |align=center|12|| |- |align=center|13|| |- |align=center|14|| |- |align=center|15|| |- |align=center|16|| |} Qualified for the 2015 World ChampionshipQualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics Qualified for the Olympic Qualification Tournament Note: As Norway later qualified for the olympics as World Champions, the qualification slot went to the runner up instead and Montenegro qualified for the qualification tournament instead of Spain.
Awards The all-star team and awards were announced on 21 December 2014.
All-Star Team Goalkeeper: Right wing: Right back: Centre back: Left back: Left wing: Pivot:
Other awards Most Valuable Player: Best Defensive Player:
Statistics
Top goalscorers RankNameTeamGoalsShots% 1 Isabelle Gulldén 58 89 65% 2 Cristina Neagu 49 97 51% 3 Carmen Martín 46 65 71% 4 Katarina Bulatović 44 86 51% 5 Nora Mørk 41 69 59% 6 Krisztina Triscsuk 39 53 74% 7 Nerea Pena 38 61 62%8 Alexandra Lacrabère 37 73 51% Heidi Løke 51 73% 10 Ida Odén 36 58 62% Source: SportResult.com
Top goalkeepers RankNameTeam%SavesShots 1 Silje Solberg 41% 94 227 2 Paula Ungureanu 40% 80 198 3 Katja Schülke 39% 56 1424 Éva Kiss 38% 72 188 Sandra Toft 62 1636 Amandine Leynaud 36% 56 157 Silvia Navarro 89 2478 Marina Vukčević 34% 21 62 Marta Žderić 27 80 10 Sonja Barjaktarović 33% 71 217 Source: SportResult.com
References
External links
Eurohandball.com