Host nation France emerged victorious from a thrilling 17 days of top class women’s handball action, claiming the European title for the first time.
France qualified for the tournament as hosts, and with home advantage, they were given a strong chance of victory by many sports betting markets, with implied probability suggesting that they were the clear second favourites, ahead of Russia and Denmark, but behind Norway.
The Norwegian team, led by their vastly experienced coach Thorir Hergeirrsson, came into the competition as the favourites to win a third consecutive European championship, and their seventh in the last eight editions, after cruising to qualification without losing a single game.
But the Norwegians struggled in their opening game, losing 33-32 to Germany and after beating the Czech Republic, lost again, this time to Romania. Although they qualified for the next stage and won all three of their matches in the Main Round, those defeats were carried forward and cost them dearly as they could only finish third in Group II, despite winning all three of their fixtures in that section.
France – who lost to Norway at the semi-final stage in the last European Championship – had a smoother passage to the knock-out stages. They were beaten by a strong Russian team in their opening game of the tournament, but victories over Slovenia, Montenegro and Denmark were enough to see them into the semi-finals, where a dominant second-half display gave them an impressive 27-21 victory over the 2016 beaten finalists Netherlands.
Russia, who had the tournament’s star player in Anna Vyakhireva, were strongly fancied by many sports betting fans going into the final, having lost only once along the way. But it was the French who were on top in the early stages, leading for most of the first half, with Estelle Nze Minko scoring four times, and they strengthened their grip on the match in the second half, opening up a three-goal lead and finishing with a flourish from Alexandra Lacrabere, who scored three times in the final eight minutes and ended the match with six goals to her name.
The French victory was greeted ecstatically by the 14,000 fans packed into the AccorHotels Arena in Paris – the largest crowd ever for an EHF Euro Final – and it confirms France as the dominant team in women’s handball, following their 2017 World Championship win.
Although the French team was powered by the goals of Nze Minko and Lacrabere, they were also strengthened by the commanding performances of outstanding goalkeepers Amandine Leynaud and Laura Glauser, who finished as the second and third best in the position in this tournament, with impressive save-rate percentages of 36 each. Defensive leader Beatrice Edwige was another crucial element in the French success, while their coach Olivier Krumbholz drew praise for his expert rotation of the French squad, which saw every player make a contribution.
France will attempt to defend their European Championship crown in 2020 when the tournament is held in Denmark and Norway, but before then, their focus will be on the 2019 World Championship, which is due to be held in Japan in November and December 2019.
