16.06.2021, 06:30
Bulgaria, Moldova complete IHF/EHF Trophy semi-finals

DAY REVIEW: The teams join Cyprus and Georgia as the line-up for the semi-finals of the tournament in Tbilisi has been confirmed

Bulgaria and Moldova both comfortably won their last group match at the IHF/EHF Trophy 2021 Wednesday and reached the semi-finals as the runners-up in their respective groups.

Cyprus and Georgia had already been confirmed as the two group winners. In Friday's semi-finals, Cyprus take on Moldova at 14:30 CEST and tournament hosts Georgia are up against Bulgaria at 17:00 CEST.

On Wednesday, Bulgaria eased past Andorra 38:21 in the last group A match before Moldova proved too strong for Azerbaijan, 28:16, to conclude group B.

Andorra and Azerbaijan will contest the two 5/6 placement matches on Friday and Saturday.

GROUP A:

Bulgaria vs Andorra 38:21 (16:8)

• Bulgaria lived up to their status as favourites for this match and they had the job more or less done at half-time with a comfortable eight-goal lead
• goals galore after the break as the teams combined for 35 goals
• Kristian Vasilev with nine goals and Sveltin Dimitrov with seven were Bulgaria's leading scorers; Unai Ruiz Ripoll netted seven times for Andorra 

GROUP B:

Azerbaijan vs Moldova 16:28 (7:13)

• Moldova were ahead from the get-go and they consistently extended their lead until a six-goal difference after 30 minutes
• the gap grew to 10 goals for the first time early in the second half, when the outcome of the match had long left no room for doubt anymore
• Moldova goalkeeper Valeriu Erhan was named player of the match by local organisers 

After a rest day, the action at the IHF/EHF Trophy 2021 in Tbilisi resumes on Friday, with the first leg of the 5/6 placement match between Andorra and Azerbaijan at 12:00 CEST, followed by the two semi-finals. All games will be streamed live on EHFTV.

TEXT: EHF / Eric Willemsen