When the 27th edition of the IHF Women’s World Championship throws off in Germany and the Netherlands, the 2019 world champions will be looking forward to securing a place between the top eight teams and, of course, fight again for a medal for the first time since their title-winning campaign in Japan.

Several players from that title-winning team have retired, but the Netherlands have still been perennial contenders, finishing ninth at Spain 2021 and fifth at Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023, as they will be the favourite in Group E, which will take place in the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam.

The Dutch side holds a positive balance against two of the three sides they will face in the preliminary round, as Egypt are debutants at the IHF Women’s World Championship and have never played against the co-hosts in a major international competition.

Henrik Signell’s side will make its debut in Rotterdam against Argentina, a team that the Netherlands have won against in all the four occasions they had over the last 13 years. First, the European team took a 30:21 win at the London 2012 Olympic Qualification Tournament, followed by a 26:18 win at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, in the preliminary round.

The Netherlands and Argentina met two times in the last two years, with the outcome being a double-digit win for the Dutch side each time. The two teams were pit at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship in the preliminary round, when the co-hosts of this edition of the competition won 41:26, while at the Paris 2024 Olympic Qualification Tournament, the Netherlands secured another win, 34:22.

The co-hosts also hold a positive head-to-head balance against Austria, winning five of the six mutual matches, with the most recent encounter being the one in the EHF EURO 2020 Qualifiers, when the Netherlands won, 32:24.

The only time the two European sides in Group E met at the IHF Women’s World Championship was in 1986, in the main round, when the Netherlands secured a 22:17 win. The only win for Austria came at the EHF EURO 1998, 27 years ago, when they took a 28:24 win.

The Netherlands will be buoyed by the fact that their matches are already sold out at the Ahoy Arena and will bring a certain amount of experience, with stalwarts like centre back Estavana Polman and left back Lois Abbingh, the MVP and the top goal scorer at the 2019 IHF Women’s World Championship, are likely to form part of the team.

Other experienced players like right back Dione Housheer, right wing Angela Malestein and left wing Bo van Wetering should also be part of the squad, as this group will cross in the main round with Group F, which contains France, Poland, Tunisia and the People’s Republic of China, making this group winner a big favourite for a quarter-finals berth.

Nevertheless, Austria will also be fishing for a spot in the main round, a feature which they achieved in their last two appearances at the IHF Women’s World Championship, when they won two matches in each edition and finished 16th and 19th respectively.

They have met Argentina only once, at Spain 2021, in the preliminary round, when the South American side won 31:29, taking advantage of Austria’s positive Covid-19 cases. However, this time around, the European side will bring plenty of experience to the table, especially in the back line, where they have two powerful arms in Katarina Pandža and Johanna Reichert.

Argentina and Egypt are likely to fight with Austria for a place in a main round, a feature which the South American team has managed over the last two editions, when they ended up 21st and 20th.

In the last three editions of the World Championship, Argentina have won two matches each, with their grand total in the competition standing at 18 wins in 77 matches. Repeating the previous two performances and ending up in the top-20 would see them reach the 20-win milestone in the competition.

Egypt are one of the three debutants at the World Championship in this edition and the only non-European one, with the Faroe Islands and Switzerland being the other two. The African side finished fourth in the 2024 CAHB African Women’s Championship, where they lost against Senegal, Angola and Tunisia, all teams which have also made it to Germany/Netherlands 2025.