Second victories for Greece and Estonia

The two group favourites Greece and Estonia paved their way to their second victories in the EHF EURO 2016 qualification. Both top their respective group tables with a clean record.

The second round of the qualification's first phase will finish with the encounter between Cyprus and Finland in Group A on Sunday.

Group B:

Italy vs. Greece 25:31 (17:14)

In June they tied in the 2014 EHF EURO pre-qualification, now Greece took the points on Italian soil following a clear improvement after the break.

Grigorius Sanikis (8 goals) and Vyron Papadopoulos (7 goals) were the Greek match winners in Lavis. After beating Great Britain 43:14 in Round 1, Greece top the table of Group B with the optimum of four points.

Italy had dominated the first half and could have even led with a bigger margin than 17:14, but when the host lacked power and concentration, Greece turned the match around, especially by strengthening their defence in crunch time, allowing the host only eight goals in the second half.

Chalkidis first equalised for the Greek team at 18:18, but Italy were still close until the score of 24:24 in minute 48, before Greece started scoring a final 7:1 series.

Group C:

Belgium vs. Estonia 24:31 (12:17)

After the 44:13 against Ireland at home, Estonia again had no problems in their second qualification match.

With the return of their top star Mait Patrail, the Estonians dominated the match throughout the entire 60 minutes. But not Bundesliga player Patrail, who netted five times, was their top scorer, but Martin Johanesson with seven goals, Dener Jaanimaa scored six times.

Backed by their frenetic spectators Belgium tried their best, but were far away from the level Estonia played.