Romania vs Bosnia and Herzegovina 49:17 (26:11)
The highly-motivated hosts began the match on the front foot, and once Cristina Neagu & co. started to raise the tempo of the play and gained a five-goal lead in the opening minutes, they never looked back. Romania scored 26 goals in the first half compared to the visitors' 11, with the legendary Neagu being perfect with five goals from five attempts. In the second half, Romania continued with their ruthless attacking display and ended the match with an astounding 49 goals and a massive win to open the qualifiers, while Bosnia and Herzegovina only scored six more goals until the final whistle. Even though Neagu was flawless, Cristina Laslo finished the match as the top scorer with seven goals by her name.
Slovenia vs Latvia 51:13 (24:11)
The hosts lived up to the favorites' role early in the first half and announced the intention to take a huge lead at the break, resulting in Slovenia having a 13-goal lead after the opening 30 minutes. Additionally, Latvia's toothless attack and the hosts' strong defence prevented the visitors from scoring a single goal in the second half until the 45th minute when Madara Cibulska, who the majority of Latvia's goals, finally found a way to put the ball in the net. Ema Abina, Nataša Ljepoja and Ema Hrvatin scored seven goals each and helped Slovenia start the qualifiers with an extraordinary win and two points.
Slovenia Head Coach Dragan Adzic: The younger players got a chance to play tonight, including two U17 players, Luna Mija Zupan and Elena Erceg. Dijana Đajić and Tinkara Kogovšek also made their debuts. The whole team left a great impression; the approach was at a high level. Since the start of the national team campaign, we have been focusing more on the upcoming match against Italy, but I am happy to see that the young players showed their quality this time as well as the support of the fans who backed us again.
Latvia centre back Eliza Bilkste: We did the best we could playing against a better team. We will look at our mistakes and see where we can improve ahead of the next match.
Czech Republic vs Finland 31:21 (16:13)
The hosts scored in the opening minute through Veronika Malá and held on until the final whistle in the second half, although the visitors tried to mount a comeback on a few occasions, but the Czech goalkeepers Petra Kudlácková and Sabrina Novotná denied Finland's attempts, making 13 saves altogether. The Czech Republic took a three-goal lead at the break, but in the second half the difference only kept growing and ended with the motivated Czechs securing a win led by the talented right back Charlotte Cholevová who scored eight goals.
Serbia vs Bulgaria 40:16 (23:8)
The hosts opened a five-goal gap early in the sixth minute and signaled the plan to recover from the disappointing Women's EHF EURO 2022 where they endured a three-match losing run in the preliminary round. The motivated Serbian squad kept scoring goals with ease and restricted the visitors to only eight goals in the first half. Serbia continued to fill Bulgaria's net in the second half with the left wing Sanja Radosavljević scoring eight goals and having a perfect shooting ratio. The visitors repeated their poor attacking display from the first half and scored eight again by the end, which resulted in Serbia celebrating a big win in group 6 ahead of their trip to Türkiye on Sunday.
North Macedonia vs Azerbaijan 40:17 (23:10)
The newly-appointed coach Kristijan Grchevski couldn't have wished for a better debut at the helm of the Macedonian national team as the hosts started the match with 12 goals in the opening nine minutes. Azerbaijan's attempts to get back in the match were halted by making too many turnovers, 30 in total, which resulted in many fast breaks for the inspired Macedonians who took a huge lead at the break. Even though the hosts started to make a few turnovers themselves in the second half, Azerbaijan only found the back of the net on seven occasions until the final whistle, resulting in a big defeat. Jovana Sazdovska had a night to remember, scoring seven goals from the left wing, while the talented left back Andrea Sedloska announced herself to the crowd in Skopje by also finding the back on the net on seven occasions.
Montenegro vs Türkiye 39:23 (16:14)
The new era for the hosts started with ambitious Türkiye playing a solid first half and having a lead until the 14th minute when the experienced Milena Raičević equaled the score. Then, Montenegro took over the lead and didn't look back. The visitors tried to get back in the match, but unfortunately the squad lacked the support from their goalkeepers who had only nine saves combined. The Montenegrins used their experience and talent to completely dominate in the second half and take two points from the opening match in the qualifiers. The Montenegrin left wing Dijana Mugoša scored eight goals and was the match's top scorer.
Montenegro left wing Dijana Mugosa: I am very happy about the victory, it means a lot to us before the World Championship. It took a little time to get into the rhythm, and after that, everything was in our favor.
Türkiye head coach Costica Buceschi: Montenegro played a great match, while we tried to fight. We gave our best; it was good in the first half, while in the second half there was a drop in our game, and the opponent who was better than us knew how to take advantage of that.
Croatia vs Greece 32:22 (17:8)
The 10th-placed national team from the Women's EHF EURO 2022 - Croatia fully used the advantage of playing on home soil to start the qualifiers with a routine win. Early in the first half, the visitors tried to keep the score close, but the Posavec sisters denied Greece and successfully put the ball in the net on eight occasions, scoring four goals each as well as having a perfect shot ratio. Croatia's lead confidently kept growing in the second half and resulted in the hosts securing an opening win in Karlovac, but Greece's centre back Olympia Andritsou stole the show and was the match's top scorer with six goals from six attempts.
It’s very important for us to win the match after six months. All our players got the chance to feel the game, and it’s great because our roster is good enough. We have had a little bit of change when we compare the previous matches. Some players are injured: Ježić, Blažević; Ana Debelić has become a mother. All in all, I am really satisfied.
I can understand that it might seem like we were in training but we knew how to put in the necessary ingredients. Certainly, Italy does not have the credentials of some of our opponents that we are used to coming across in major championships, but they still have a great team, which scored 23 against Slovenia not long ago. We had to stay very serious and we knew how to do it to make the match easy. It's always nice to play in such an atmosphere, especially since you can have fun and have fun by scoring goals and running. It's typically the kind of match you can get away with if you're average, but we avoided the trap.
