The
\nRomanian national women’s handball team has got through to the semifinals of
\nthe World Handball Championship,
\nunderway in Denmark. In the quarterfinals, the Romanians succeeded a 31-30 win over
\nhost county Denmark, after a pretty dramatic game. At the end of the regular 60
\nminutes, the score was 27-all, and the Romanians had the lead all throughout
\nthe game. A couple of seconds from time, Romania was granted a 7-meter penalty
\nshot, but the best player on the pitch, Cristina Neagu didn’t manage to score. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Then extra time came, when for the first time during the game Denmark had the
\nupper hand. The Romanians braced up and put themselves back into the game,
\nleveled the score, then went one goal up. The first extra-time round ended
\n29-28 for the Romanians. The last minutes of the game were literally
\nheart-throbbing. The score was 30-all in the final minute. Romania had the
\nball, the attacking bout it built was literally by the book, and Ada Nechita
\nput her team ahead, and right into the world elite of women’s handball.
\nRomania’s best player at the game was Cristina Neagu, who scored no less than
\n15 goals. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here is what Cristina said right after the end of the game against
\nDenmark:<\/p>\n
First, I am very happy we’ve won. I
\nwasted the opportunity to turn that 7-meter shot into a goal, and that could
\nhave cost us dearly on our way to the semifinals. I then tried to put myself
\nback into the game. Such moments may be the most difficult in the life of a
\nhandball player…However, once again we managed to be a real team, we stayed
\ntogether, we played the 10 minutes of extra time, we won and fully deserved it,
\nagainst all odds. To be honest, there are not enough words to describe how proud I am of the
\nteam, the staff, the coaches, physicians, masseurs, those who look after us…I
\nwant to thank all the wonderful people who came to support us, people who got
\nthemselves couched in front of the TV sets and supported us, and all those,
\nwho, irrespective of the national squad’s results, support and encourage us
\nevery time. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the semifinals
\nof the ongoing World Championships, Romania is pitted against defending Olympic
\nand European champions Norway, a team that outclassed Montenegro in the
\nquarterfinals, 26-25. Here is Romania’s
\nCristina Neagu about the game:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Norway is Norway. We have never
\nmanaged to grab a win against them in the last 10-15 years. But we’d rather
\nmake the most of these moments right now, have a rest tomorrow and…may God’s
\nwill be done! In the semifinal game we will try to do our best on the pitch, at least as we’ve done in our last
\ntwo games. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We recall that Romania remains the only
\ncountry that, starting in 1957, has participated in all the final tournaments
\nof the World Championships, winning
\nthree medals: gold in 1962 and silver in 1973 and 2005, respectively. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
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The Romanian national women’s handball team has got through to the semifinals of the World Handball Championship underway in Denmark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":66567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[38268,32876],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-66566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-romanian-womens-handball","tag-world-handball-championship"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n