The Romanian women’s handball side
\nhave advanced to the semi-finals of the European Championship underway in
\nFrance. The fate of the qualification was hanging by a thread after Romania on
\nWednesday lost the last match in the main group phase to Hungary, 29-31. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania had a good start in the game
\nagainst Hungary. The first 20 minutes gave Romania a five-goal lead, and the
\nscore read 11-6 10 minutes from half time. In the second half however Hungary
\nmade a spectacular comeback, evening the odds 17-all. The Hungarian side
\ndominated the second half and took the lead. On minute 42 Hungary were leading
\n25-20. Romania narrowed the goal difference and even levelled the score to
\n27-all 7 minutes before full time. A turning point in the end of the match was
\nwhen Cristina Neagu sustained a serious right-knee injury after a foul. Her
\nabsence impacted the gameplay, and Romania eventually lost 29-31, also after
\nmissing a 7-m throw in the last seconds of the game. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Following this result, a total of
\nthree teams were competing for the second place in the group tables, namely
\nRomania, Norway and Hungary. As a tiebreaker the organisers took into account
\nthe direct encounters between the three teams. Romania had the best score, with
\ntwo points and a plus 6 goal-average, as compared to plus 5 for Norway, the
\ndefending European champions, and minus 11 for Hungary. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In Friday’s semi-finals to take
\nplace in Paris, Romania will take on Russia. Yevgeni Trefilov’s players have
\nhad a good run in this year’s championship, despite losing the last match in
\nthe main group phase, 30-39 to Sweden. Ahead of that match Russia had already
\nsecured qualification. Cristina Neagu will be unavailable for Romania’s match
\nagainst Russia. To replace her, coach Ambros Martin has called up Bianca
\nBazaliu, the left winger of Romania’s champions, CSM Bucharest, a promising
\nyoung player with a good record sheet. In 2016, aged 19, Bazaliu won the
\nChampions League trophy. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In the other semi-final, the
\nNetherlands will take on France. The final match is scheduled for Sunday. Let
\nus also note this is the third time Romania qualify for the European
\nChampionship semi-finals since the competition changed its format in 1994. The
\nfirst time was in 2000, when Romania hosted the competition. In the
\nsemi-finals, Romania lost to Hungary at the time, then lost the bronze final to
\nRussia. In 2010, when the championship was hosted by Denmark and Norway,
\nRomania lost to Sweden in the semi-finals, although walked away with bronze
\nafter defeating Denmark in the third-place playoff. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania qualify for the European Championship semi-finals despite losing to Hungary on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29572],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-79944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-handball"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n