The opener of the IHF World Championship 2023 qualification tournament in Cluj-Napoca was on the edge for almost 60 minutes, but in the end the hosts Romania had the upper hand winning with a 33:30 margin in the top match against Israel – just like in the qualification play-offs for the EHF EURO 2018.
The tournament of group 3 is only played with three teams, with Cyprus withdrawing from participation due to Covid-19 cases in their team, all three Cyprus matches will be calculated with a result of 10:0 loss and plus 2 points in favour of the opponent team. The winner and runners-up of the tournament will proceed to the next stage of qualification, which is played in March.
Romania and Israel still face Moldova on Saturday and Sunday.
GROUP 3
Romania vs Israel 33:30 (18:18)
- The first half was fully equal, no team managed to forge ahead, the biggest gap was two goals and the lead changed hands five times. Romania had the better start; Israel took their first lead with 11:10.
- After the equal half-time score, Romania did not let the lead slip from their hands after the score line read 24:23.
- But nothing was decided until the 58th minute, when the Romanian goalkeeper Ionut Ciprian Iancu scored into the empty goal for the first three-goals gap at 32:29.
- Romanian top scorer was Demis Grigoras with eight goals; Yoav Lumbroso netted nine times for Israel.
The tournament continues with these matches:
Israel vs Moldova
Saturday 8 January, 14:00 CET
Moldova vs Romania
Sunday 9 January, 17:00 CET
(all matches in Cluj-Napoca, Romania)
Group 1 will continue with round 4 on Saturday.
