Group D
Croatia
Participations (incl. 2023): 11
Best result: Winners (2007, 2011)
Poland
Participations (incl. 2023): 9
Best result: 2nd (2017)
Romania
Participations (incl. 2023): 3
Best result: 17th (2019, 2021)
Spain
Participations (incl. 2023): 13
Best result: 3rd (2017, 2021)
One team looking to find their way back to old glory, two teams who have been close to gold in the recent past and finally want to make that final step in Nazaré: group D promises an interesting battle between two-time former champions Croatia, 2017 runners-up Poland, and two-time bronze medallists Spain.
As the nation that dominated the sport both on the women’s and the men’s side in those years, Croatia finished in the medal ranks in each of their first five Beach Handball EURO appearances, between 2004 and 2011. This golden era included two titles – including the one from their home event in Umag in 2011 – to go with a silver and two bronze medals.
However, in the next five events, Croatia got to only one more quarter-final – in 2019. Their impressive medal collection, however, has been awaiting extension for 12 years now. And still, Croatia are never to be underestimated.
Poland will certainly not do that. They have been quarter-finalists four times, and their strong run in the 2017 European Championship was only stopped by Norway in the final. A noteworthy member of the 2023 squad is Iwona Niedzwiedz, the 43-year-old former left back who score more than 500 goals for the Polish national indoor team until her retirement in 2017.
Romania are entering their third straight EURO, and are guaranteed to get their best-ever finish, since they were 17th both previous times, while the 2023 editions includes 16 participants in total.
A deeper run in the tournament can be expected from Spain. One will hardly find a more consistent force in women’s beach handball. Ever present at the Beach Handball EURO, they have never finished worse than eight. However, they are yet to appear in a final, let alone win one. But with three semi-finals over the last four European Championships, including two bronze medals, there is every reason to put Spain high on the prediction lists once again – even more so since they did win a world title (in 2016) and finished runners-up at the global championship a year ago. And with their junior team also taking silver at the YAC 17 EURO two years ago, Spain look set to continue their consistency.