11.01.2014, 11:05
Lithuania qualify without playing, Romania go through despite losing

ROUND REVIEW: The first matches of Round 6 see another two groups being decided in Qualification Europe for the World Championship 2015 in Qatar

Lithuania qualify without playing, Romania go through despite losing

After Bosnia and Herzegovina had already qualified on Wednesday, Lithuania and Romania followed suit on Saturday, becoming teams two and three to make it to the European play-offs that eventually decide nine European participants for the World Championship 2015 in Qatar.

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

Lithuania did not even need to play. They benefitted from Georgia's 24:36 loss against Finland and now can't be caught anymore.

However, they still have to play Turkey on Sunday which is the final match in Group 1.

Romania only scraped into the play-offs and benefitted from their big victory in the first leg against Slovakia. The 24:32 loss Slovakia conceded in Romania back in November proved to be too much of a burden for the Slovakians.

They beat Romania in the re-match 27:25 which levelled them with Romania in Group 2 on 10 points each, but as Romania won the encounter on aggregate, they are through to the play-offs.

In Group 4 Greece and Belgium drew 30-all. Greece now have seven points and top the group, but Israel only need one point from their match against Netherlands to throw them off the group's throne.

In Group 5 Estonia beat Latvia 32:30, but Bosnia and Herzegovina had already qualified.

TEXT: EHF / ts