Shares have crashed! How Romania reached the undisputed favorite to qualify for the main group at the Women's Handball World Championship

Ashley Davis26/11/2025

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Article by Adrian Jitea – Published Tuesday, 25 November 2025, 23:27 / Updated Tuesday, 25 November 2025 23:28

Romania got into the most complicated preliminary group a Women's Handball World Championship. Ovidiu Mihăilă's students will face Croatia, Japan and Denmark. The first three places go to the next stage. What chances do Romanian women have?

Reporter Adrian Jitea and photojournalist Ionuț Iordache will be in Rotterdam with the Romanian national team and will transmit all the information and images that matter;
The final tournament is scheduled between November 26 and December 14, 2025, in the Netherlands and Germany. Romania will play all matches in Rotterdam.

Romania aims to rank among the top 10 national teams, a performance that has not been achieved since 2017. At the time of the draw, the group really looked like one of “death”, as even the International Federation called it.

The recent movements, the good form of the Romanians and the injuries from the opposing camps, have changed the calculations.

Romania's schedule for the 2025 World Championship

November 27, 19:00 » Romania – Croatia
November 29, 19:00 » Romania – Japan
December 1, 21:30 » Denmark – Romania

Favorites against Croatia

In the last month, the balance of power for the inaugural match has clearly tilted in Romania's favor. Devastated by injuries, Croatia is seen by bookmakers as having little chance. The first odds published indicated a ratio of 1.45 – 3.60. Meanwhile, the share of the “tricolors” is in constant decline, reaching up to 1.20. The victories on the line from the Carpathian Trophy contributed to this trend.

Croatia's squad has thinned significantly since the draw. Pivot Ana Debelic announced her retirement from the national team. The same post is weakened by the injury of Katarina Jezic, a handball player who was in exceptional shape in Brăila, before the medical problems. They are not the only absences.

In the most recent training games, the captain of the team was Dejana Milosavljevic, the center from Dunărea Brăila. Moreover, in the World Cup squad we find only 3 players from outside the Croatian league. Podravka and Lokomotiva Zagreb form the core.

The selector Ivica Obrvan commented on the many problems: “Our attention will be in the last days of training on the central defensive area, where we have many absences.”

The Croatians lost both warm-up matches in November, 22-27 against Poland and 27-29 against Senegal.

The last head-to-head matches took place in the Euro 2024 qualifying group. Romania won both, 25-23 and 26-24.

How Croatia's record looks:

the best ranking at a World Championship was 6th place, in 1997;
in the previous edition, from 2023, it ranked 14;
the highest performance was ticked in 2020, 3rd place at the European Championship organized by Denmark.

Denmark, the big favorite of the group

From the first urn, Denmark came out in the way of the “tricolors”, bronze medalist in the previous two editions and seen by specialists as having a 3rd chance at gold.

The Nordic national team moved to the technical bench this summer. Helle Thomsen replaced Jesper Jensen. The initial agreement provided for the Danish coach to continue at CSM Bucharest. Surprisingly, just before the resumption of preparations for the 2025/2026 season, he handed in his resignation.

Helle Thomsen is gone, but the Bucharest formation gives 3 handball players, the captain Anne Mette Hansen and the extremes Trine Ostergaard and Emma Friis. The batch is one of only 16 players, the minimum possible number.

Before the final tournament, Denmark played two warm-up matches against Sweden, which they won 35-23 and 36-35.

Speaking of Hansen and Ostergaard, both picked up minor injuries in their final warm-up game against Sweden on Saturday.

I was careless and twisted my ankle. Fortunately, it's nothing serious. I've had it many times. Now it seems even easier to get injured than in the past. I'll probably need a bandage at the World Cup. I am at peace with the situation

– Trine Ostergaard

I got hit right in the eye. It's not a big deal, hopefully I can reduce the swelling a bit. We'll see how it looks in the coming days. It hurts a little, I felt the blow, the area is a bit sensitive

– Anne Mette Hansen

The recent record is against Romania. The Danes won the previous 6 direct disputes. They faced each other in the group at the previous World Championship, triumphing 39-23.

Record of the Danish national team:

3 Olympic gold medals (1996, 2000, 2004), bronze at the last edition;
a world title (1997), 6 other medals, bronze at the last edition;
3 European titles (1994, 1996, 2002), another 4 silver medals, 2nd place also at the last edition.

Japan comes with low morale

One of the most drastic defeats in the recent history of the Romanian national team was recorded at the 2019 World Championship, score 20-37 against Japan, the host of the tournament at that time.

The two were also opponents in the previous final tournament. Romania prevailed 32-28a gala performance by Eliza Buceschi, 12 goals.

The current generation, coached by Morten Soubak, had only one player in the Champions League, Asuka Fujita. Winger Gloria Bistrita suffered a serious injury and will miss the World Cup. Only 6 handball players play in Europe. A familiar name is that of Thuringer's coordinator, Natsuki Aizawa.

In the last test before leaving for Rotterdam, Japan was soundly beaten by world champion France on Sunday, score 22-36. The day before, the Japanese beat Angola 29-28.

Record of the Japanese national team:

double champion of Asia, in 2004 and 2024;
has 21 World Championship appearances. The best finish was a 7th place in 1965;
at the previous World Cup he ranked 17th;
participated in only two editions of the Olympic Games: 1976 (5th place) and 2020 (12th place).

Romania's team for the World Championship

Elena Sherban

Goalkeepers: Iulia Dumanska (Minaur), Bianca Curmentă (Corona Brașov), Elena Șerban (Danurea Brăila)
Far right: Sonia Seraficeanu (Gloria Bistrița), Mihaela Mihai (CSM Bucharest)
Inter right: Alicia Gogîrla (SCM Craiova)
Coordinators: Rebeca Necula (Rm. Vâlcea), Alisia Boiciuc (Corona Brașov), Andreea Popa (Brăila Danube), Elena Roșu (Brăila Danube), Cristina Laslo (Gloria Bistrița)
Pivots: Lorena Ostase (Gloria Bistrita), Sonia Vasiliu (Slatina), Asma Elghaoui (Rm. Vâlcea)
Left Integers: Sorina Grozav (Corona Brașov), Maryia Skrobic (Rapid)
Far left: Gabriela Dumitrascu (Corona Brașov), Eva Kerekes (Gloria Bistrița)