Austria’s women’s travel to the European Indoor Championships in Prague as the current world number one and is among the favorites.
After two silver medals at the 2023 and 2025 World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2024 European Championships in Berlin, the goal is clearly defined: first, to reach the semi-finals, then to challenge for a medal.
Despite their strong starting position, the Austrian coaching team warns against overconfidence.
“Our focus is on performing at our best and playing a strong tournament,” says head coach Christian Hoffmann. “The level of competition at the European Championship is incredibly high, but that’s exactly what motivates us. We’re looking forward to taking on this challenge and competing against the best teams.
The Red Foxes’ path to the semifinals leads through a challenging group stage with reigning champions Germany considered their toughest opponent.
But recent history shows that Austria can upset the favourites: At the 2025 World Championships in Porec, it was the Austrian team that knocked Germany out of the title race in the semi-finals.
Austria faced three more group opponents – Ireland, Belgium, and Switzerland – at the beginning of January during the international Rohrmax tournament hosted by SV Arminen in Vienna.
Victories were achieved against Ireland and Belgium while the match against Switzerland ended in a draw. These results underscore the evenness of the group.
Johanna Buchleitner is the one newcomer to the panel who will be making her capped debut at this event.
Otherwise, they have nine of the side that competed in the World Cup last year with experienced goalkeeper Stella Mäntler-Van Rahden also coming in along with Luisa Mayer who was a reserve a year ago.
On the flip side, last year’s captain Fiona Felber is not involved this time around.
WAC and AHTC provide a quartet of players while there is a trio based in Germany – Johanna Czech is with Rot-Weiss Köln while Katherina Bauer and Daria Buchta are both with Harvestehuder THC.
Bauer was player of the tournament at last year’s Euro Under-21 indoor tournament in which Austria won gold. Buchta is playing in her sixth Euro indoors and has amassed 28 goals in 41 caps.
It will be Christian Hoffmann’s first time with the side as head coach though he has been with Austria at four previous Euros in other staff roles including assistant coach and manager.
| Number | Name | Age | Club | Caps | Goals |
| 2 | Carla KEMPER | 23 | WAC | 12 | 0 |
| 4 | Luisa MAYER | 26 | WAC | 14 | 1 |
| 5 | Helene HERZOG | 24 | AHTC | 14 | 3 |
| 6 | Johanna CZECH | 23 | Rot-Weiss Köln | 28 | 12 |
| 11 | Katharina BAUER | 21 | Harvestehuder THC | 26 | 7 |
| 15 | Katharina PROKSCH | 20 | AHTC | 20 | 4 |
| 17 | Marie HAHNENKAMP | 26 | SV Arminen | 6 | 2 |
| 19 | Laura KERN | 23 | AHTC | 26 | 5 |
| 24 | Daria BUCHTA | 27 | Harvestehuder THC | 41 | 28 |
| 29 | Johanna BUCHLEITNER | 26 | WAC | 0 | 0 |
| 31 | Stella van RAHDEN (GK) | 30 | WAC | 25 | 0 |
| 33 | Michaela STREB (GK) | 24 | HC Wr. Neudorf | 9 | 0 |
| Team Manager | Susanne DVORAK | ||||
| Head Coach | Christian HOFFMANN | ||||
| Assistant Coach | Nitan SONDHI | ||||
| Assistant Coach | Peter PROKSCH | ||||
| Physio | Christian WALLISCH | ||||
| Physio | Stefan KOVACS | ||||
