Before the tournament it seemed that Romania and France would meet in the medal zone. Meanwhile, these teams competed for ninth place. After an equal match about the victory decided, a series of penalty throws. Rumania, turned out to be better in ‘sevens’ and won 30:29.

Romania and France were  favorites of the tournament. Romanians handballers went through the group stage with one draw, Les Blues finished the first stage of the competition with only one defeat, suffered in the last round, after a crazy game with Korea. In the 1/8 finals both teams dropped out and it was hard to even say that the match for the 9th place is a duel for consolation for those teams.

The duel from the first minutes was very even, but Romania had a slight advantage. The French have made more mistakes both in attack and defense and thanks to that their rivals could have jumped on even four goals. Laurent Puigsegur players, however, didn’t thought about giving up, they tried to play consistently and before the break they led to a tie.

The second part of the meeting was almost exactly the same. Again, Romanians got faster to lead, and the French had to chase the result. The battle with time went well and after the final siren the scoreboard again showed a draw. In such a situation there was a series of penalty throws- in it Carmen Andrei Amariei players were better and score one more goal.

ROMANIA – FRANCE 30:29 (15:15)

Romania: Chetraru, Ciuca 1, Ugran – Balaceanu 7, Cace 2, Kerekes 2, Popa 9, Barabas, Valcan, Tarsoaga 3, Moraru, Ilie 1, Pica 1, Lascateu 1

France: Portes, Andre – Peillon, Leblevec 7, Mairot, Janod 1, Louis 2, di Rocco 2, Lasm 3, Wajoka 4, Pora, Ouattara 2, Jarrige 1, Dembele 2, Foppa 4, Jacques 1

QUOTES

Laurent Puigsegur, head coach of France:  It was a good game. I’m sad because we lost after penalties. I’m proud of my girls that after yesterday loss we fight today.

Aneta Szypnicka, photo credit: PRESSFOCUS/ZPRP

GALLERY