Three clear victories in EHF EURO 2016 qualification openers

There were no surprises in the first three matches of the EHF EURO 2016 qualification on Wednesday. Finland, Estonia and Greece did not have any problems to start victorious.

Group A:

Finland vs. Luxembourg 28:21 (12:11)

Finland took a clear revenge for the defeat in the EHF EURO 2014 pre-qualification in June. Thanks to a major improvement after the break and ten goals by Andreas Rönnberg, the Scandinavians outclassed Luxemburg in their opener of the qualification stage.

The Benelux team was close until the halftime score of 12:11, but then was overran by the Finnish counter attacks. Best Luxembourg scorer was Martin Muller with five goals.

Group B:

Greece vs. Great Britain 43:14 (14:8)

The newly formed British team was without a chance in Greece, while the host – backed by their international stars like top scorer Savvas Karipidis (seven goals) – took home an easy victory. Great Britain were only on a quite equal level until minute 25, then they lacked skills, power and concentration to reach a better result.

Group C:

Estonia vs. Ireland 44:13 (20:4)

Even without their top star Mait Patrail, Estonia marched over Ireland like a knife cuts through warm butter. By scoring only four goals in the first half the guest team was much below par of their usual performance, but improved after the break without any chance to threaten the clearly better host, for which Raidoo Peedomaa was top scorer with seven goals. Steffan Craig Meyer netted four times for the Irish team, which competes for the second ever time in an EHF EURO qualification round.