Powerful World Cup start for the high-aiming Netherlands

NETHERLANDS – SLOVENIA 31-17 (18-10)

Maarschalkerweerd 5, Steijns 5 – Zulic 3, Ocepek 3

Netherlands came at this event with some of players as champions at the Women’s U19 EHF Championship in 2021 in Skopje and had a great start – with a big win against Slovenia (31-17).

Both teams started with a fast „run and gun“ game, with four goals within two minutes (2-2). First step forward to the win was made by Netherlands, thanks to Lois Van Vliet, winger that scored two goals and gave her team a lead of 5-3, and then it was the left back Jalisha Loy who started scoring and made the score 8-5. Slovenia got into a big scoring crisis in the second part of the first half and had huge problems to get through the aggressive defense of the opponent. Also, the Dutch goalkeeper Bianca Schanssema was excellent.

Netherlands used every opportunity in the attack, and created a big gap lead in the 23. minute (16-8), eight goals difference that stand on their side until the half time (18-10). In 37. minute, Netherlands lead by ten goals for the first time on the match (22-12). Famous „tulips“ were blooming great in Skopje, and Slovenia did not have any chance to stop them from getting the win in the first round.

PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Romee Maarschalkerweerd

STATEMENTS AFTER THE MATCH

Ricardo Clarijs (head coach, Netherlands): „I think this was a good start for us. We played disciplined, our defense was very good and that gave us very easy goals. But, this is just a start, we will go match by match and we will see where we will be in the end“

Mateja Kavcic (head coach, Slovenia): „Congratulations to Netherlands, they were the better team. We did not make the right decisions in attack and defense. Big congratulation to our rival, and we will aim to be better in future.“