Romania qualify for the European Championship semi-finals despite losing to Hungary on Wednesday.
The Romanian women's handball side have advanced to the semi-finals of the European Championship underway in France. The fate of the qualification was hanging by a thread after Romania on Wednesday lost the last match in the main group phase to Hungary, 29-31.
Romania had a good start in the game against Hungary. The first 20 minutes gave Romania a five-goal lead, and the score read 11-6 10 minutes from half time. In the second half however Hungary made a spectacular comeback, evening the odds 17-all. The Hungarian side dominated the second half and took the lead. On minute 42 Hungary were leading 25-20. Romania narrowed the goal difference and even levelled the score to 27-all 7 minutes before full time. A turning point in the end of the match was when Cristina Neagu sustained a serious right-knee injury after a foul. Her absence impacted the gameplay, and Romania eventually lost 29-31, also after missing a 7-m throw in the last seconds of the game.
Following this result, a total of three teams were competing for the second place in the group tables, namely Romania, Norway and Hungary. As a tiebreaker the organisers took into account the direct encounters between the three teams. Romania had the best score, with two points and a plus 6 goal-average, as compared to plus 5 for Norway, the defending European champions, and minus 11 for Hungary.
In Friday's semi-finals to take place in Paris, Romania will take on Russia. Yevgeni Trefilov's players have had a good run in this year's championship, despite losing the last match in the main group phase, 30-39 to Sweden. Ahead of that match Russia had already secured qualification. Cristina Neagu will be unavailable for Romania's match against Russia. To replace her, coach Ambros Martin has called up Bianca Bazaliu, the left winger of Romania's champions, CSM Bucharest, a promising young player with a good record sheet. In 2016, aged 19, Bazaliu won the Champions League trophy.
In the other semi-final, the Netherlands will take on France. The final match is scheduled for Sunday. Let us also note this is the third time Romania qualify for the European Championship semi-finals since the competition changed its format in 1994. The first time was in 2000, when Romania hosted the competition. In the semi-finals, Romania lost to Hungary at the time, then lost the bronze final to Russia. In 2010, when the championship was hosted by Denmark and Norway, Romania lost to Sweden in the semi-finals, although walked away with bronze after defeating Denmark in the third-place playoff.
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