Live blog: Switzerland in control; tight games in Debrecen and Innsbruck
Day 2 of the Women's EHF EURO 2024 will see the rest of the teams start their campaigns, including co-hosts Switzerland in Basel. As ever, the live blog will bring you coverage throughout the day, including news, reviews, videos and pictures of all the action.
17:45
The warm-ups are over and throw-off is very soon!
17:30
A 30-minute warning! In half an hour, Romania vs Czechia, Switzerland vs the Faroe Islands and the Netherlands vs Iceland all get underway. In Innsbruck, the Netherlands are practising passing to each other, while Iceland are in the middle of shooting and saving warm-ups.
17:15
Will we get a new top scorer or top goalkeeper tonight? At the moment, three players - Norway's Henny Reistad, Sweden's Nathalie Hagman and Slovakia's Barbora Lancz - are jointly top of the rankings with nine goals each. Austria's Lena Ivancok tops the goalkeeper rankings with 14 saves (42.4 per cent efficiency), although Zsófi Szemerey of Hungary was more efficient (nine saves at an incredible 52.9 per cent).
There are plenty of players who could challenge or match either in attack or between the posts, like Czech star Markéta Jerábková, or Dutch goalkeeper Yara ten Holte. Let's see what they can do.
16:55
Just over an hour until today's first games throw off. Have you made your match predictions yet? If not, head over to the Home of Handball app, open the game hub, and guess the outcome of the games now. The more you participate, the more points you get, and the more chance you have of winning prizes!
16:20
Watch out for the sprinters ... the wings are the fastest runners on court, and Trine Østergaard of Denmark did more running than anyone else at the last two EHF EUROs. Let's see what distance she notches up tonight!
15:52
The power of sport can be inspiring, and Swiss centre back Kerstin Kündig is hoping that a strong showing in Basel can get the next generation picking up a handball. We agree!
I hope that many children are sitting at the stands and watching the games and think, hey, this is a cool sport. I want us to inspire young girls and players to start playing handball. It can help the national team to have more players later that can play on a high level, and I think this is still one of the main differences between Switzerland and other countries.
14:15
We had some high-scoring games yesterday - will today be the same? The average number of goals per match on Thursday was 27.6!
14:00
Scandinavian handball is among the best in the world and there are lots of Scandinavian coaches at the Women's EHF EURO 2024. Among them is Henrik Signell, who recently took over as head coach for the Netherlands after leading South Korea to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. He's now putting his mark on the Dutch team although, as Dione Housheer told us earlier in the week, the women in orange will still have their own style when they face Iceland tonight.
It is a Dutch-Scandinavian mix. Through the years we created our own Dutch style, so I think we still have this, and of course Scandinavian handball is really good. With his ideas and experience he has, he also brings this to the team, but I think we have a good basic in the national team, and he just adds many details and experience he has from different teams before, this a good combination.
We have talked about our goals for the competition and we agreed it is important we just put (up a) good fight. To be able to play against any team. We know we have a difficult group, but as we have come all this way we can try and see how far we can go. Maybe get a draw or win a game. We are aware it's going to be hard, but we will never give up.
