Sports Flash

In women's volleyball and men's basketball, Romania's national teams recorded important victories on Wednesday

Florin Orban, 07.08.2025, 13:45

The Romanian women’s national volleyball team qualified to the 2026 European Championship after defeating the Croatian team, score 3-1, in Blaj, in its last match in preliminary Group G. The volleyballers grabbed the win after one hour and 53 minutes. The best player for the Romanian team was Adelina Budăi-Ungureanu, with 21 points. Andrea Mihaljevic and Martina Samadan stood out from the losing side, with 13 points each. At present, Romania ranks first in the group standings, with 3 wins and one defeat, followed by Croatia, with 2 wins and one defeat. Kosovo, which has lost all the games played so far, is in third place. Croatia, which will play its last match in Osijek on August 9 against Kosovo, can win the group if it wins 3-0 or 3-1, but even if they finish second, Romania has already secured qualification. According to the competition regulations, the group winners and the five best second-place teams advance to the final tournament. The European Championship, which will feature 24 teams, will take place between August 21 and September 6, 2026, in Turkey, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

Let’s move on to basketball. On Wednesday, in Oradea, in the second round of the 2027 World Cup preliminaries, in Group E, the Romanian men’s national team defeated the Hungarian side, 76-64. The Hungarians started better and, after the first quarter, had an eight-point lead. However, the Romanians came back and dominated the rest of the match. With 21 points and 7 rebounds, Mihai Măciucă was the best player of the team coached by Mihai Silvășan. Zoltan Perl stood out from the guests, with 15 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. It was the second success for Romania in this phase of the competition, after a debut victory against North Macedonia, 80-72, last Saturday. With four points in two games, Romania leads the standings, followed by North Macedonia and Hungary. The top two ranked teams will qualify for the 2027 World Cup preliminaries. On August 13, Romania will also play North Macedonia in Oradea, as well as Hungary in Szolnok on August 16. (VP)