Netherlands keep their EHF EURO hopes alive

Two wins against Turkey were a must for Netherlands, if they wanted to remain in the race to Poland 2016 – and the Dutch team kept their hopes alive with a 31:21 win on Sunday which lifts their tally to four points.

However, the opponents will be much stronger in June, when Netherlands face the top teams from Norway and Croatia.

Turkey remain on the bottom of the group table and still wait for their first point.

Group 1: Netherlands vs. Turkey 31:21 (13:9)

Following the 30:23 away win at Turkey on Wednesday, Netherlands had an easy going Sunday afternoon and eventually won the re-match on home court even clearer.

As in the first leg the Turkish side played on eye level with their opponents in the opening period, but then lacked skills and the power to withstand the Dutch pressure.

After 26 minutes the score stood at 10:9 in favour of the Dutch side, when they scored three consecutive goals to take a four-goal lead into the half-time break.

The Turkish resistance was broken at the latest when the Netherlands led 20:13 with 20 minutes left to play.

With the match's second last attack, Netherlands eventually even double-figured the goal gap between the two teams.

Ramazan Döne was the Turkish top scorer with five goals – he has now hit the back of the net 37 times in four matches –, while almost all court players of the Dutch team scored, with Arjan Haenen (6 goals) being the top scorer.