Huge wins for Spain and Serbia; Surprise win for Belarus

Despite a 23:20 win against Romania (already through), Belarus have missed the chance to grab a ticket to Sweden as best third ranked team, due to still being eleven goals behind Slovenia in the battle of the last spot to Sweden. With this Romanian defeat, Norway were already winners of their group prior to the start of their match against Lithuania. While Spain (against Bulgaria) and Serbia (against Italy) took expected clear wins on Saturday, Ukraine were beaten by a buzzer-beater in the Czech Republic.   GROUP 1:

Romania vs Belarus 20:23 (9:9)  Romania took the opportunity to give a very team the chance to show their abilities after booking their ticket to Sweden on Wednesday. Nearly all regular players were able to sit out, only Paula Ungureanu and Valentina Ardean Elisei remained from the experienced players, as coach Buceschi mostly put the young guns on court like his daughter Eliza. Thus, Belarus were mostly ahead in the first half, still having a minimal chance of qualifying for the EHF EURO as best third ranked team – but they needed a huge win against Romania. However, already at the break and after a huge number of technical mistakes on both sides, their hopes were shattered at 9:9. But driven on by the goals of their top scorer Karyna Yezhykava (in total nine), Belarus again had the better start, managing to reach the first four-goal gap at 16:12 in the 40th minute. The upswing did not even stop, when defence specialist Anastasiya Lobach received a red card after her third suspension only three minutes later. Six minutes before the …

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