Greece follow Finland to the play-offs

After Finland had already made it to the EHF EURO 2016 play-offs, which are played in April 2014 against the three lowest ranked teams of the EHF EURO 2014 qualification, Greece became the winners of the group 2 and also proceed to the next stage.

On Sunday (16 June) Estonia are the favourites for claiming the third spot.

Group 1: Finland vs. Cyprus 35:17 (19:6)

Even though they had already qualified for the EHF EURO 2016 play-offs, the Finnish team showed a spectacular performance against Cyprus.

After just 30 minutes the distance already stood at 13 goals, as the visiting team had scored only six times.

At the end Finland were 18 goals ahead and finished this qualification stage unbeaten with three victories and only one draw against Luxembourg.

Best scorers were Teemu Tamminnen with ten goals for Finland and Constantinos Constantinou and Yiannos Nikiforou, who scored four times each for the Cyprus that finished third in group 1 behind Luxemburg.

Group 2: Greece vs. Italy 29:27 (16:13)

Even a defeat with a five goals difference would have been enough for Greece to make it to the play-offs, but the hosts were eager to celebrate their fourth victory in their fourth match and their clean record with their fans.

However Italy, who knew latest at the break that they would not have a chance to gain an aggregate victory which would have granted first position, fought until the end and caused big problems for the Greek game.

But in the end even nine goals from Pasquale Maione were not enough to take the third victory in this round for Italy.

Best scorer for Greece was Alexandros Vasilakis with eight goals.