Italy and Netherlands reach semi-finals at Men's 18 EHF Championship
The preliminary round has come to an end at the Men's 18 EHF Championships in Georgia and Lithuania, and four teams respectively can still hope to win their event and get promoted to the Men's 20 EHF EURO 2020.
On Thursday, Italy and the Netherlands became the last two teams to qualify for the semi-finals at the Championship in Lithuania. Already on Tuesday, Austria and Israel had reached the last four in Lithuania, while Bosnia-Herzegovina, Romania, Belarus and Montenegro achived the same at the EHF Championship in Georgia.
In the semi-finals on Saturday, Romania face Montenegro and Belarus play Bosnia-Herzegovina at the Georgia event, while Netherlands against Israel and Austria against Italy are the semi-final pairings in Lithuania.
Italy did their part to reach the semi-finals with a 28:23 win against Moldova. Their participation was eventually confirmed when the Netherlands beat Estonia 27:24 to top the group with five points ahead of Italy on three.
Austria's 32:18 win against Israel on Thursday confirmed Austria as group winners and Israel as the second ranked team in Group B.
At the Georgia event, the group winners were determined when Romania beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 29:23 in Group A and Belarus won 26:25 against Montenegro.
Friday is a rest day in Georgia and Lithuania, while the action resumes at the EHF Championship in Bulgaria where Hungary, FYR Macedonia and Hungary have the best chances to reach the final.
Live streams and live ticker
Matches from all three tournaments are streamed live. The streams can accessed via the respective official website for each event.
The EHF live ticker is also available for these matches.
For the European Handball Federation the Men's 18 EHF EURO in Croatia and the three Championships are the first tournaments that are played since a new system for the younger age categories was introduced.
This means that at the end of the Men's 18 EHF EURO 2016 the three lowest ranked teams will be downgraded to the Men's 20 EHF Championships 2018, while the three winners of the Men's 18 EHF Championships will be promoted to the Men's 20 EHF EURO 2018.
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EHF / ts