Handball, European Championship: Romania vs. Norway on Monday evening

The National women’s handball team of Romania is to make the debut to the European Championship in Sweden on Monday evening, in a match against the reigning world champions Norway, part of Group D. In the same group are also the representatives of Russia and Croatia.

The Romanian team left for Helsinborg on Sunday.

Romanian player Cristina Neagu (photo) has told sport.ro before the match: “We are ready. We make the debut against Norway, a team we have very seldom defeated in the past 15 years. We have trained and we want to win points. The most important thing is to qualify to the main groups. Our group is very tough, as Norway and Russia are very powerful teams, whereas Croatia has a good team. Romanians have great expectations from us, we know that. After the Olympic Games a lot of things have changed, the coach as well as the team. We have a new coach with new ideas. We certainly want to win a medal, however I don’t believe we are able to win gold. From my point of view there’s a problem because we left for the championship only one day before. On Monday is the first match, we will be tired. I would have liked to travel a bit earlier, to have more time and to be relaxed for the match.”

Three players are missing from the team in Sweden. It is about Valentina Elisei, Camelia Hotea and Ana Maria Tănăsie, all injured. On the other hand, Aurelia Bradeanu has retired from the national team after the Carpathians Trophy.

The Romanian team, coached by Martin Ambros, will play the first match, against Norway, on Monday at 21.45h (Bucharest time).