The 2010 European Women's Handball Championship was held in Denmark and Norway from 7 to 19 December. It was the first European Championship hosted by two countries. Norway won their overall 5th gold medal, when they defeated first time finalist Sweden in the final. Romania claimed the bronze medal.

Venues

Three Danish and two Norwegian cities have been selected to host the 2010 Championship. The venues in Aalborg, Aarhus and Larvik were only used during the preliminary round. The fourth venue to be used in this round is located in Lillehammer, and was also one of the two venues in the main round. The other being MCH Indoor Arena in Herning, which was the only venue to be used in the final round.

Competition format

Ranking in preliminary and main round

If two or more teams were equal on points in the preliminary or main round, their ranking was determined as follows: During the preliminary or main round matches: After the completion of the preliminary and main round matches:

Qualification

Qualification matches were played from September 2009 to May 2010. Following the new system introduced for the 2010 Men's Championship, all teams were included in the qualification round, except host Denmark and defending champion and host Norway. Teams were divided in 7 groups and the two top ranked teams from each group qualified.

Qualified teams

Squads

Each nation had to submit an initial squad of 28 players by 3 November 2010, but 12 of them became reserves when the final squad of 16 players was announced the day before the tournament starts.

Referees

13 Referee pairs were selected:

Seeding

The draw for the final tournament took place 17:00 CET on 5 June 2010 in Odense.

Preliminary round

Group A (Aalborg)

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Group B (Aarhus)

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Group C (Larvik)

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Group D (Lillehammer)

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Main round

Top 2 teams from each group advanced to the Semifinals, while the third placed team from each group competed in a 5th/6th place play-off.

Group I (Herning)

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Group II (Lillehammer)

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Final round

Knockout map

5th-place match

Semifinals

Bronze-medal match

Final

Final ranking and statistics

Source: EuroHandball.com

All-Star Team

Chosen by team officials and EHF experts: EHF-Euro.com

Other awards

Chosen by team officials and EHF experts: EHF-Euro.com

Top goalkeepers

Source: SportResult.com

Top goalscorers

Source: SportResult.com

Best defender

Source: SportResult.com

Most assists

Source: SportResult.com