“The stadium is my heart,” says Czehcia team captain Kateřina Laciná as her side look forward to welcoming Europe’s top 10 nations to the UNYP Arena from Thursday for the women’s EuroHockey Indoor Championship 2026.
“It’s always special on home court. Our goal will definitely be towards the top of the competition. At last year’s World Cup, we were just a little bit short of the final so I hope we can go even further this time in front of our fans.”
It is the third time in the last 12 years that they have hosted the competition and, for Laciná in her fifth Euros, it holds special memories.
“The home atmosphere will definitely be special. I hope that as many spectators as possible will come to support us, because there will definitely be something to watch.
“Just like in 2018, when we last played at home in the European Indoor Championships. I believe that we can beat anyone in Prague, just like when we beat the Germans in 2018. But we still have a lot of work to do before the tournament.”
They come into the competition with 11 of the side who won bronze at the Indoor World Cup last year with the one chance seeing Veronika Pribikova coming in for Anna Vorlová.
There, they defeated Germany in a shoot-out to take the bronze medal having just missed out on the final at the hands of eventual winners Poland.
Indeed, it is a hugely experienced panel with Jindřiška Neusser’s career including the 2007 Indoor World Cup in Vienna; Adéla Lehovcová and Kateřina Laciná both played in the 2014 Euro indoors with the former scoring 94 caps in 67 international matches to date.
Barbora Ćecháková is one of the world’s great indoor goalkeepers and she was named goalkeeper of the tournament at both the 2020 Euro indoors and the 2023 Indoor World Cup among other laurels.
On this stage, they are going for a third medal having won bronze both in 2000 and 2020.
And they come into this competition on a high having won gold at Röhrmax Cup two weekends ago.
The Czechs opened the tournament with a 6:3 victory over Switzerland , which they followed up with a very convincing performance against Ireland 6-1. An even match with the home team SV Arminen ended in a 3-3 draw.
But the Czech team then came back to beat Belgium 6-3 and drew with Austria 2-2 to head the table on points.
Head coach Tomáš Procházka evaluated the tournament primarily in terms of the game’s progress: “We finished in first place. It’s a great result, but the progress we made during the tournament was more important for us.
“The tournament helped us finalie the panel and, above all, apply what we had been training for, because it was the first big warm-up matches.
“The result was very good, but it also showed us a few things that we still need to work on before Europe.”
| Number | Name | Age | Club | Caps | Goals |
| 2 | Kateřina LACINÁ © | 32 | HC 1946 Praga | 60 | 47 |
| 4 | Lucie DUCHKOVÁ | 23 | TJ Plzeň Litice | 34 | 13 |
| 5 | Jindřiška NEUSSER | 37 | SK Slavia Praha | 75 | 6 |
| 9 | Veronika PRIBIKOVA | 21 | HC 1972 Rakovník | 0 | 0 |
| 12 | Natálie NOVÁKOVÁ | 26 | SK Slavia Praha | 26 | 10 |
| 13 | Adéla LEHOVCOVÁ | 34 | SK Slavia Praha | 67 | 94 |
| 14 | Zuzana SEMRÁDOVÁ | 22 | HC 1946 Praga | 9 | 0 |
| 15 | Anna ŽELEZNÁ | 27 | HC 1946 Praga | 51 | 15 |
| 19 | Nikol BABICKÁ | 26 | SK Slavia Praha | 29 | 13 |
| 24 | Natálie HÁJKOVÁ | 22 | SK Slavia Praha | 34 | 13 |
| 27 | Barbora ĆECHÁKOVÁ (GK) | 31 | HC Slavia Hradec Králové | 64 | 0 |
| 95 | Diana SVYŠČUK (GK) | 20 | HC 1946 Praga | 1 | 0 |
| Team Manager | Kamila DUKATOVA | ||||
| Head Coach | Tomas PROCHÁZKA | ||||
| Assistant Coach | Martin CAPOUCH | ||||
| Physiotherapist | Denisa MATEJKOVA | ||||
| Physical Trainer | Jakub PRICHYSTAL | ||||
