Petreikis nets seven in Lithuanian win over Finland

Round 4 of the Qualification Europe for the World Championship in Qatar threw off with two matches on Saturday.

In Group 1 first-ranked Lithuania beat Finland 24:23. Benas Petreikis became one of the key players for the victory as the Lithuanian playmaker netted seven times.

With seven points from four matches Lithuania are very close to qualifying for the European play-offs. Finland, who have three points, have no chance anymore to advance.

Only the five group winners of this qualification phase make it to the next stage where they meet 12 participants of the EHF EURO 2014 plus Germany.

The play-off double-headers will eventually decide nine European participants for the World Championship 2015 in Qatar.

In Saturday's second match Slovakia beat Italy 28:21. While the difference between the two teams was relatively small at half-time with Slovakia leading 13:10, the higher efficiency of the home team became visible in the second half.

In the end Slovakia scored with every third attack, while Italy needed almost five attempts to be successful.

Patrik Kruscak scored six times for Slovakia, while Italy's best scorer was Michele Skatar with five goals.

Slovakia now have six points from four matches and are currently even with Romania who also have six points but still have to play their fourth round match.

With only one win after four matches Italy, like Finland, have no chance anymore to advance to the play-offs.