Iceland top group 6, relegate Romania to EHF EURO 2016 qualification play-offs

Courtesy of a clear improvement after the break, Iceland beat Romania in the 84^th and last match of the EHF EURO 2014 qualification.

Thanks to this victory, which also marked the farewell for Olafur Stefansson, Iceland top group 6 with ten points in their account ahead of Belarus (9 points).

Romania finished the qualification as only team without any point.

Like Switzerland from group 1 and Bosnia-Herzegovina from group 7 (both 1 point), they will have to play the play-off matches in April 2014 in order to proceed to the second qualification phase for the EHF EURO 2016.

Estonia, Greece and Finland, the three winning teams from the EHF EURO 2016's first qualification phase, are their potential opponents.

Group 6: Iceland vs. Romania 37:27 (14:15)

Iceland said farewell to their most successful sportsman in Reykjavik.

The game against Romania was the last ever match for the Icelandic national team of legendary Olafur Stefansson, who at the beginning of June was also named part of the 'Ultimate Selection of 20 years of EHF Champions League' as best right back.

But even the four goals of “Ole” before the break could not prevent the hosts from a 14:15 result at half-time against the already eliminated team from Romania.

But after losing their fifth qualification match against Belarus on Wednesday, the 'Vikings' did not want to give the first position in their group from their hands.

They improved after the break but until the score stood at 19:20 Romania played on eye level.

A series of six straight goals then paved the way to the victory, and when they knew that they had lost the match, Romania surrendered completely and allowed Iceland to march ahead easily, reachinh the first ever double figured gap at 35:25 three minutes before the end.

Main figure for Iceland's 'express mode' in the final stages was left wing Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson who netted 12 times in total.

In his last match for Iceland, Stefansson scored eight times, while Aurel Gabriel Florea and Florin Acatrinei were the best Romanian shooters with five goals each.