Slovenia, Sweden, Spain take second consecutive wins in EHF EURO 2016 Qualification

They did it again. After winning their opening matches on Wednesday and Thursday, Slovenia, Sweden (both in Group 3) and world champions Spain (in Group 7) have won their respective second qualifiers when the EHF EURO 2016 Qualification continued on Saturday.

Group 3: Latvia - Slovenia 28:39 (13:21)

After beating Slovakia on home court earlier this week, Slovenia remain unbeaten in the EHF EURO 2016 Qualification following their 39:28 win at Latvia.

The hosts remain on zero points after they conceded their second defeat in this campaign following the loss against Sweden on Wednesday.

Just as in Slovenia's match against Slovakia, Dragan Gajic became again the Slovenian top scorer, netting ten times against Latvia.

The match, in which Latvia's Dainis Kristopans and Slovenia's Klemen Cehte received direct qualifications, was already decided at the break, when Slovenia were ahead by eight goals.

The hosts only kept the game close until the 16th minute when the score stood at 12:8 in favour of Slovenia, but Latvia had to acknowledge that Slovenia were better in all departments as they forged ahead to an impressive 20:13 lead at half-time.

By the 34th minute the gap had reached double figures as Slovenia extended it to 23:13 and the World Championship 2013 semi-finalists never the let game slip off their hands despite the red card for Klemen Cehte in the 57th minute.

Group 3: Slovakia - Sweden 23:33 (15:16)

A brilliant performance of Lukas Karlsson (seven goals) and line player Andreas Nilsson (9 goals from 9 attempts) as well as an overall brilliant second half guaranteed Sweden their second EHF EURO 2016 qualification victory after they had already beaten Latvia on Wednesday.

The young Slovakian team, coached by Zoltan Heister, produced a strong first half, but it was not able to build on the lead it enjoyed midway through the first half. In particular Tomas Urban showed some great handball, scoring seven goals from seven attempts, but also this was not enough for Slovakia.

After the score had stood at 16:15 for Sweden after 30 minutes, Sweden came like being on fire out of the dressing rooms and scored nine unanswered goals, virtually deciding the game in their favour in the 42nd minute.

Slovakia had completely lost their rhythm and were unable to bounce back after this shocking to the second half.

Group 7: Finland - Spain 27:34 (15:17)

After losing their opener against Germany (18:30) on Thursday, Finland only took three days to reassemble as they put up a great fight which saw world champions Spain on the edge of defeat at least for a larger part of the match.

Finland's Teemu Tamminen, who scored 11 goals, was the hosts' hero and top scorer, while Jorge Maqueda and Victor Tomas were Spain's best scoring players with seven goals each.

Right from the start of the game the Finnish underdogs did not show any fear at all, keeping the game entirely open with the score standing at 14:14 in the 26th minute.

Even the two-goal lead they enjoyed at half-time did not bring any ease into the Spanish game as Finland fought hard, trailing by just one goal (24:25) in the 48th minute.

It was only then that Spain's experience came into account and by scoring four straight goals they eventually broke the Finnish resistance.

Spain now have the maximum of four points on their account while Finland remain win- and pointless after both teams have played two matches in the EHF EURO 2016 Qualification.