Germany/Netherlands 2025 represents the 30th anniversary of the Brazilian women’s IHF World Championship debut, with their 17th place back at Austria/Hungary 1995 an impressive first ranking.

Since then, they have qualified for every event since, with 2025 their 16th in a row. This perfect qualification sequence highlights their dominance in their continent, since bursting onto the global scene, through the former Pan-American continental federation and now South and Central America Handball Confederation (SCAHC).

Their title at the 2024 SCAHC Women’s Championship last December was their fourth in a row and saw them take five wins out of five on home soil – seeing off El Salvador, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina – for gold, their match against neighbours Argentina in the final round-robin game effectively a gold medal clash, Brazil taking a 17:11 lead at the break, before powering on to a final 31:22 win.

Despite entering the global stage in the mid-1990s Brazil have won the world championship already – back at Serbia 2013, where they defeated the hosts in the final under the guidance of coach Morten Soubak.

And that spirit of 2013 is reflected in the squad selection for Germany/Netherlands 2025 with right wing Alexandra Priscilla do Nascimento Sanchez who were both part of the 16 that won the final 12 years ago, included, complete with 415 national team appearances between them.

For 2012 IHF Women’s Handball Player of the Year Nascimento, it will be her eighth world championship (2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2019, 2025) as she returns to action after her last appearance back at the 2019 world championship in Japan.

“I never retired from the national team; I just waited for the coach team to invite me again. I just prepared myself – I continued training, continued to give the best for my body and mind,” said the 44-year-old to ihf.info.

“I feel really very well. My body is good, very well and now I have more experience for me and for the team. My job with the national team is totally different now because I'm 44 years old and I could be the mother of these players, but I respect the young players. I don't think; ‘we need to work like we worked before’ – we are in 2025 and I need to see how the young players think now. I need to mix these things.

“A lot of the young players come to me and ask how I do things, what I think and how they can improve with every training. This for me, is a good feeling – I just want to help. I say all the time, if I can do something positive, I will, if not, it’s much better to shut up.”

Nascimento and her side, captained by Gyor’s Bruna de Paula, will face Cuba, Czechia and Sweden at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart in their preliminary group with all three sides known to the South Americans.

Sweden will likely be their toughest test, the two meeting at the 2009 world championship in China, the Europeans winning 26:23. Two other competitive fixtures have seen the Swedes defeat the South Americans at two Olympic Games – a 25:22 victory at Beijing 2008 and 34:31 win at Tokyo 2020.

Czechia and Brazil met at the last world championship, Brazil winning 30:27 in 2023, while Cuba are their most played team in the group with nine competitive meetings, one at their home world championship in 2011, which saw them ease to a 37:21 win, and the remaining eight at either the Pan American Championship or the Pan American Games, Brazil taking victories in all of them.

“Our expectations are as high as possible, and we strongly believe in achieving them. We aim to at least reach the quarter-finals and finals, and strive for the best possible placement,” said coach Cristiano Silva to ihf.info.

“The first thing we need to do against Cuba is overcome the anxiety of the opening game, the first game of the championship, and come up with an attack that can break through their physical defence,” he explained. “We also need to be effective in one-on-one duels, as they are a team with a lot of individual quality. But we believe we can maintain the good results we've had with Cuba in recent international competitions.

“We faced Czechia in the last world championship and know they have high-level players who play in major leagues. We expect a very balanced match, just like back in 2023, which we won, but I believe they are also a team that will demand a lot from us defensively.

“They have a very strong counter-attack, and we need to be effective defensively to stop their powerful nine-metre shot – being effective in our defensive transition and preventing them from scoring many goals from distance. These give us a good chance of winning a very important game in the group stage, so that we can into our game against Sweden with a lot of confidence.

“Sweden are highest-ranked in our group and is a team that has always been a contender for the top spots in any world championship,” added Silva, who also coaches club side FMO/Handebol Clube Português in Brazil.

“It will be very high-quality where we will need to play a very complete game, playing well in all of the phases. Again, we also need to be very effective in our defensive return, so that we can stop Sweden's counter-attack and, above all, manage to counter their impressive 6-0 defence, so that we can win the match against a great opponent.”

One of the key tasks for coach Silva will be to unite his team together – his provisional squad features players playing their club handball in at least 13 different countries (Brazil, Slovakia, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Greece, Serbia, Norway, France, Portugal).

Friendly and preparation camps in both Austria and Portugal in the lead up to Germany/Netherlands 2025 will have helped in that process as Brazil look to continue their impressive form which has seen them finish inside the top ten in the last two global events – sixth in 2021 and ninth last time out, in 2023.

Key players: Bruna de Paula Almeida (centre back), Patrícia Matieli (centre back), Gabriela Moreschi (goalkeeper), Renata Lais de Arruda (goalkeeper), Alexandra Priscilla do Nascimento Martinez (left back)

Coach: Cristiano Silva

Qualification for Germany/Netherlands 2025: South and Central American (SCAHC) Women's Handball Championship: Winners

History in tournament: 1995: 17th, 1997: 23rd, 2001: 12th, 2003: 20th, 2005: 7th, 2007: 14th, 2009: 15th, 2011: 5th, 2013: Winners, 2015: 10th, 2017: 18th, 2019: 17th, 2021: 6th, 2023: 9th

Group at Germany/Netherlands 2025: Group G (Sweden, Brazil, Cuba, Czechia)