Sports flash
The latest from women's handball, men's water polo and football
Radio România Internațional, 20.03.2025, 13:45
Gloria Bistrița-Năsăud and Dunărea Brăila this past Wednesday have grabbed precious wins in the 20th round of the National Women’s Handball League. On home court, Gloria secured a 38 – 24 win against SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea, the team that this coming Sunday will compete in the EHF European League’s quarterfinals.
The other Romanian team playing in the EHF European League, Dunarea Braila, thrashed CSM Targu Jiu, 35-22, away from home. According to the as-it-stands-table, CSM Bucharest are at the top.
In Group B of the quarterfinals as part of the Champions League in Men’s Water Polo, on Wednesday CSM Oradea sustained a serious defeat by Hungary’s Ferencváros Budapest, 18-7. We recall Ferencvaros is the winner of the League’s 2024 edition. Also in Group B, Spanish team Atlètic-Barceloneta secured a 14-10 away win against Italian challengers Savona.
Ferencváros Budapest are at the top of the table with 9 points. Following in descending order are Barceloneta, Savona and Oradea, with 6, 3 and zero points on their record sheet, respectively. CSM Oradea’s next scheduled fixture is the away game against Savona on April 1st.
This coming Friday Romania’s national football squad will play its debut game as part of the preliminaries of the Word Cup 2026, to be hosted jointly by the United States of America, Mexico and Canada. On the National Arena in Bucharest, Romania takes on Bosnia and Herzegovina. On Tuesday, March 24th, the Romanian national team plays an away game against San Marino, in Serravalle.
Also part of Group B are Austria and Cyprus. For this coming Friday match, head-coach Mircea Lucescu has summoned 26 footballers. 15 of them are signed up by foreign clubs while 11 play in the Romanian Super League. domestic championship. The Romanian national team’s pool of regulars includes four first-time footballers.
They are defenders Mihai Popescu and Denis Ciobotariu, currently signed up by FCSB and Rapid, respectively, and midfielders Denis Politic of Dinamo Bucharest and Vlad Dragomir, currently playing for Paphos in Cyprus.
For the final tournament, the winners of the 12 European preliminary groups will have a direct qualification. 2nd-placed teams and the best 4 group winners of the League of Nations will be distributed according to the drawing of lots. Those teams will engage in two playoff games, semifinal and the final, in a bid to decide the last 4 European national teams that will secure their qualification.
