But outstanding goalkeeper Elin Jona Thorsteinsdottir, top scorer Perla Albertsdóttir and their never-ending morale finally were not enough for the unlucky Icelanders in their EHF EURO comeback after 12 years to take their first point ever at a European championship. On the other side, the Dutch side were rattled, but took the 27:25 win thanks to three counter-attack goals in the final stages.
GROUP F
Netherlands vs Iceland 27:25 (12:12)
- Icelandic goalkeeper Thorsteinsdottir had an incredible performance: in the first half, she saved nine shots (43 per cent), and after the break she even got better, finishing with 15 blocked shots to be awarded Player of the Match, presented by Grundfos
- Thorsteinsdottir’s saves and a high efficiency in counter attacks and positional attack provided Iceland with an intermediate 8:5 lead after 12 minutes, the biggest gap before the break
- the Netherlands struggled hard to find gaps and to get the upper hand, but a 4:0 run for an 18:14 advantage in the 38th minute gave them what seemed to be a crucial lead
- boosted by Thorsteinsdottir and Albertsdóttir, Iceland never gave up, and equalised again at 21:21, as the newly formed Dutch side still had enormous problems in attack
- finally, Dione Housherr and Inger Smits took responsibility and scored twice each for the decisive 27:23 lead; Housheer, Larissa Nüsser and Angela Malestein all netted five goals each
Lucky debut and great comeback
Hendrik Signell did not have a long time to prepare his Dutch team for the EHF EURO 2024. In September, his predecessor and Swedish compatriot Per Johansson stepped back and only some days later, the former national coach of Sweden and South Korea was appointed.
Signell held his first training camp at the end of October, followed by two preparation tournaments. He left some experienced players such as Estavana Polman, Laura van der Heijden and Kelly Dulfer out of his EHF EURO squad – and the newly formed team obviously had problems with the underdogs from Iceland. But finally, Signell’s first official match – and the 100th international game for goalkeeper Rinka Duijndam, who played only 41 seconds – luckily ended victorious, but with a smaller margin than expected.
On the other hand, Iceland showed maybe their best EHF EURO performance ever, though they still wait for their first ever victory in their third participation after 2010 and 2012. Their seventh ever EHF EURO match was a great comeback after a 12-year absence with a lot of team spirit, individual skills and the endurance to put pressure on the Netherlands almost until the end.
It’s always hard to start a tournament, you have to get in the tournament, and I think we used the first half maybe for that, and of course in the second half we got a little different, and then we missed some shots and let them come back in the game. We made it hard for ourselves today, but of course, Iceland did good, and they made it us fight hard.
I really have bittersweet emotions after this match. We are already where we want to be, and we are closer to those top teams everybody had believed. We showed we can play on this level against top teams. This is a good feeling for us, but we could have had one or two points now. They had more power than us in the end.
