2014 European Women's Handball Championship


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 showed intention to host the championship. Until the final deadline of 28 January 2011, EHF received three bids from four federations:
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

Qualification

Qualified teams

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:

    Preliminary round

    The playing schedule was released on 4 June 2014.
    All times are local.

    Group A

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    Group B

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    Group C

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    Group D

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    Main round

    All times are local.

    Group I

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    Group II

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    Knockout stage

    Bracket

    All times are local.

    Semifinals

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    Fifth place game

    Third place game

    Final

    Final ranking

    RankTeam
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10
    11
    12
    13
    14
    15
    16

    Qualified for the 2015 World Championship
    Qualified 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

    Top goalscorers

    Source:

    Top goalkeepers

    Source: