Romania’s men’s handball team to play at the European Championship after 28 years break

Romania’s national men’s handball team will play at the European Championship 28 years after their last participation after securing qualification on Sunday despite losing to Ukraine.

Romania lost to Ukraine, 26-31 (13-12), in the final match of preliminary Group 4. The match was played in Germany, and Romania's main scorers were Stanciuc with 6 goals, Negru with 6, and Humet with 5.

In the 11th minute, Alexandru Tărîță received a direct red card for hitting the opposing goalkeeper directly in the head from 7 meters. Tărîță also missed Romania's first penalty throw, stepping over the line from where he was supposed to execute, and therefore having the goal invalidated, according to News.ro.

In the other match of the final round, Austria beat the Faroe Islands 38-33. As a result, Austria finished the group unbeaten (12 points), while Romania finished second (4 points), both teams qualifying for the CE2024 finals.

The team from the Faroe Islands finished third (4), and Ukraine finished last (4).

Romania's results in Group 4 were: 26-28 and 25-17 against the Faroe Islands, 32-36 and 30-35 against Austria, and 34-26 and 26-31 against Ukraine.

Out of the 32 national teams that began as part of the qualifiers, only 20 will obtain a spot for the 2024 final tournament in Germany, which will take place from January 10 to 28. Four teams were directly qualified: the host, Germany, along with the medalists from 2022 - Sweden, Spain, and Denmark. France also secured qualification on Saturday night after defeating Poland 30-27 and will play in the final tournament for the 16th consecutive time.

The last time that the Romanian national men’s team participated in a European Championship final tournament was in 1996 when it finished 9th out of 12 participating teams.

(Photo source: Federatia Romana de Handbal on Facebook)