The city of Trondheim is the second and final port of call for the Norway hosting of the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship as the Trondheim Spektrum welcomes six teams for Main Round, Group II.

With Norway and France both bringing maximum points of four each with them through to this stage and just two teams qualifying from the group through to the quarter-finals, they are in the driving seats to make the last eight.

The winners of the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship will qualify directly through to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but with final ranking spots of 2-7 ensuring qualification through to the IHF Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments in April, and with France, Angola, Norway and Republic of Korea already qualified as host nation and their respective continental champions, teams outside of the top seven will have everything to play for, with third place in the main round groups a key spot to aim for. 

The three best teams from Group G (Spain, Brazil and Ukraine) and Group H (Netherlands, Czechia and Argentina) will fight for the two quarter-final spots in Group IV of the main round in Frederikshavn.

With three European sides and two South American teams, the group looks unpredictable, as Spain and the Netherlands start the main round with a maximum of four points and have the upper hand against Czechia and Brazil (two points), while Argentina and Ukraine have the toughest challenge, starting from the bottom with zero points.

GROUP II
15:30 CET Republic of Korea vs Slovenia

With Korea already qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and three other teams in Trondheim already through as well, Slovenia will be doing everything they can to get maximum points in the main round to ensure at least third place.

Slovenia have impressed already in Norway and are already on two points, thanks to their win over Angola and with influential captain Ana Gros back, they are clear favourites to face a misfiring Korea side on zero points. 

Korea have shown some signs of their potential, but it has been a disappointing campaign so far, off of the back of a disappointing Asian Games.

“Korea have already qualified for the Olympic Games and are one of the top non-European teams, which already has many experiences from the biggest competitions,” said Slovenia coach Dragan Adzic to rokometna-zveza.si. “We will be focused in the match and take another step towards our goal.”

In international competition, the two teams rarely meet. In the last three, Korea won two 2016 friendlies while the Europeans defeated the Asian champions in a high-scoring (42:35) game at the 2005 IHF Women’s World Championship.

18:00 CET France vs Austria

Anyone associated with French handball will appreciate the historic significance of this tie for the women’s side – their 28:25 main round victory over Austria at the 2003 IHF Women’s World Championship in Croatia helped them secure a semi-final spot on their way to their debut gold.

They had to wait another 14 years for their next gold (2017) and with the form they have shown so far in Norway, it is quite possible the wait will continue for their third. But the best teams win even when they do not play well and France bring with them a maximum four points.

“We are gaining momentum and we see that we are progressing with each match,” said France coach Olivier Krumbholz, to ffhandball.fr. “There are certainly still some imperfections, things to improve, but I think there is a clear improvement in our production.”

With their real test in Trondheim coming in their final main round match against the co-hosts Norway, France should see off the European wildcard side Austria.

But Herbert Müller’s side have shown a fighting spirit that has impressed, and with two points in the bank already they will be looking to do as much as they possibly can against the current Olympic champions so they can secure at least a third spot in the group and have a chance of qualifying through to the Paris 2024 Olympic Qualification Tournaments – most likely at the expense of Slovenia, who they play on the final main round matchday.

“France is a handball power, a tournament team that continues to improve,” said Müller to oehb.at, who is not expecting any other teams than Norway and France to qualify through to the quarter-finals.

“We are looking forward to games exactly like this. France has the fastest transition game in the world, so therefore we have to be patient in our positional attack.”

20:30 CET Norway vs Angola

Little can be said about the legendary Norwegian women’s team that has not been said already. They have impressed in all three of their games in the championship so far, in attack and in defence with coach Thorir Hergeirsson fully rotating his squad and bringing maximum points into the main round.

This clash between two reigning continental champions – and therefore already-qualified through to Paris 2024 – means handball fans will see the very best Europe and Africa have to offer and the very different ways they go about it.

While Norway have one foot in the quarter-final already, Angola – as the first team in the 32-team senior world championship era to qualify for a main round without a win – enter with zero points, despite an impressive match against France which very nearly saw them at least draw.

If Angola have any thoughts of getting through to the last eight they need to start with a win over the co-hosts.

It will be hard though: they have never managed it in their 11 meetings, losing all of them in a run stretching back to 1996, the most recent loss, a 24:32 reverse in the Posten Cup in Norway just over a week ago.

GROUP IV
15:30 CET Ukraine vs Czechia

For Ukraine, reaching the main round is a historic achievement, as their inexperienced side qualified for their first world flagship competition after a 14-year hiatus and them progressing further is already a big accomplishment. They squeezed among the top teams after a more than convincing win against Kazakhstan in the last round of Group G.

Even though they will not be able to top their previous best results, ending in fourth place in 2003, they can still secure a good finish, aiming to avoid the 18th place in 2001, as their worst-ever finish. 

An ambitious Czechia side came to the 26th IHF Women's World Championship with more experience and confidence. Led by backs Charlotte Cholevová and Marketa Jerabkova, who netted 19 and 17 goals respectively, Czechia are eager to prove their status among the best. With two points in their hands, and by the play shown in Group H, Czechia are slight favourites in this match, as they will aim to keep their chances alive for a quarter-finals berth.

“It will be an interesting game. We made it to the main round and we are starting all over again. We need to win. But, we are a young team and we cannot say that we are favourites or not favourites. Ukraine can play good handball. They have quality, even though Iryna Glibko is not currently in the team, a player of my club,” said Czechia's head coach Bent Dahl for handball.net.ua.

This will be their first-ever meeting at the IHF Women’s World Championship, but they have met at the EHF EURO in the past, with Czechia winning three times.

18:00 CET Spain vs Argentina

Spain are starting the main round with four points, after their straight-forward wins against Kazakhstan (34:17) and Ukraine (32:20), and their superb comeback against Brazil, 27:25.

Ambros Martin's team certainly has the quarter-finals in their mind and beating Argentina would bring them one step closer to what would be their sixth placement among the top eight teams in history at the world handball flagship competition. Sharing a similar style of handball to Argentina, Spain's main force looks to be the team spirit and the connection of the backcourt with the line players.

Argentina could not keep up with Czechia and the Netherlands in the first two games of Group H, but in the most important match, they delivered a win, in spite of a topsy-turvy attack. Beating Congo 31:25 brought them their second-ever main round appearance after Spain 2021, but will be starting on zero points, with slim chances of progression.

The Spanish language was spoken on the courts of the World Championships between these two sides in 2009, 2013 and 2021. In all three encounters, Spain were the winning side while Argentina never scored more than 19 goals against their opponents.

20:30 CET Netherlands vs Brazil

Arena Nord in Frederikshavn will see the first day of the main round at Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023 with a heavyweight clash between the Netherlands and Brazil. With one of the best attacks in the competition, scoring 114 goals in three games, it seems like the Netherlands are on a roll, being the second best attack in the competition after Norway.

Winning all three games of the group phase on a 13-goal margin or higher, the Netherlands used the most out of their strong defensive play with goalkeeper Yara Ten Holte shining with 38 per cent save efficiency so far and she will be once again the crucial link in stopping Brazil's fast attack, with Bruna de Paula as the main protagonist.

Despite coming to the main road with two points, Brazil proved they are a strong contender to make it to the quarter-finals. After four failed attempts, at Spain 2021, Brazil made it to the quarter-finals and they will do everything to make it happen again.

Two easy wins (46:15 against Kazakhstan and 35:20 against Ukraine) gave the Brazilian squad an additional boost ahead of the top-notch clash with Spain, but there the South American side failed to secure any points, conceding a 25:27 loss.

Their only World Championship encounter was in Round 16 at the 2013 edition when Brazil not only beat the Netherlands 29:23 but they also became world champions. In their most recent duel, a year ago at the Women's Golden League tournament, the Netherlands managed to snatch a narrow 27:26 win.

President’s Cup

13:00 CET Kazakhstan vs Congo

Both teams progressed further to the main round at the last World Championship 2021 held in Spain, but now are back in the President's Cup and have to search for newfound ambition. Despite their results until the end of Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023, both Kazakhstan and Congo are now sure their worst placement at the world flagship competition.

So far, Kazakhstan lost all three Group G matches on a double-digit margin and managed to score more than 17 goals just against Ukraine (24:37). Congo, on the other hand, had more strength in the attack with having four goals more per game on average.

This will be the third time these two countries face off at the World Championship. In 2007 Congo won 27:26 but Kazakhstan got their revenge eight years later claiming a 36:24 victory.