In the opening round of Group B, the runners-up of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, RHF, meet the runners-up of the 2021 Women’s African Championship, Cameroon. They are followed by the promising encounter of Serbia versus Poland.  

RHF vs Cameroon 18:00 CET

2020 Olympic silver medallists and 2019 bronze-medal winners RHF will face Cameroon to throw off their 25th IHF Women’s World Championship campaign. The Pabellón Polideportivo Pla De L’Arc in Lliria will be hosting this intercontinental clash at 18:00 CET. 

All eyes will be on RHF and especially on new coach Liudmila Bodnieva, who took over after the Olympic Games this summer. Bodnieva, the first female coach on the sideline for the RHF, has a solid track record so far, winning the EHF EURO 2022 Qualifier games against Lithuania (35:21) and Switzerland (26:22) in October. 

We will go out and try to show the maximum in every match. We are seriously preparing for the opening game against Cameroon. We rarely meet with African teams, we will play exclusively to win,” stated Bodnieva ahead of their opener. 

The African representative Cameroon arrive on the global stage with far less experience than their opponents but are nevertheless looking to upset the big favourites. With their third appearance at an IHF Women’s World Championship, Cameroon look to finish stronger than in 2005 (22nd place) and 2017 (20th place). 

Serbia vs Poland 20:30 CET

The second Group B match on 3 December sees a European clash at 20:30 CET, when the Serbia team take on Poland for their first match at the 25th IHF Women’s World Championship. 

Serbia had finished in sixth place after an exciting campaign with some ups and downs at the 2019 edition of the women’s flagship event in Kumamoto, Japan. Uros Bregar’s team enter the competition with an uneven track record at the EHF EURO 2022 Qualifiers, as they recorded a win against Turkey (36:27) but then lost against Iceland (21:23). So, stability will be key for the Serbia side, who can rely on a balanced offence with Jovana Stoiljkovic, Zejlka Nikolic, Jovana Kovacevic and Kristina Liscevic contributing. 

Poland joined the Spain 2021 line-up as substitute nation. With two recent EHF EURO 2022 Qualifier wins in the back (36:22 versus Lithuania and 31:22 against Switzerland), Poland are highly motivated to keep that winning streak going – or as centre back Kinga Achruk put it before the World Championship:

“I always say that our team is, above all, a great fight and we will give everything on the court. We will leave our heart on the field to win.”

Coach Arne Senstad surely will have his squad ready for Poland’s important opening match.