The
Romanian national women’s handball team has got through to the semifinals of
the World Handball Championship,
underway in Denmark. In the quarterfinals, the Romanians succeeded a 31-30 win over
host county Denmark, after a pretty dramatic game. At the end of the regular 60
minutes, the score was 27-all, and the Romanians had the lead all throughout
the game. A couple of seconds from time, Romania was granted a 7-meter penalty
shot, but the best player on the pitch, Cristina Neagu didn’t manage to score.
Then extra time came, when for the first time during the game Denmark had the
upper hand. The Romanians braced up and put themselves back into the game,
leveled the score, then went one goal up. The first extra-time round ended
29-28 for the Romanians. The last minutes of the game were literally
heart-throbbing. The score was 30-all in the final minute. Romania had the
ball, the attacking bout it built was literally by the book, and Ada Nechita
put her team ahead, and right into the world elite of women’s handball.
Romania’s best player at the game was Cristina Neagu, who scored no less than
15 goals.
Here is what Cristina said right after the end of the game against
Denmark:
First, I am very happy we’ve won. I
wasted the opportunity to turn that 7-meter shot into a goal, and that could
have cost us dearly on our way to the semifinals. I then tried to put myself
back into the game. Such moments may be the most difficult in the life of a
handball player…However, once again we managed to be a real team, we stayed
together, we played the 10 minutes of extra time, we won and fully deserved it,
against all odds. To be honest, there are not enough words to describe how proud I am of the
team, the staff, the coaches, physicians, masseurs, those who look after us…I
want to thank all the wonderful people who came to support us, people who got
themselves couched in front of the TV sets and supported us, and all those,
who, irrespective of the national squad’s results, support and encourage us
every time.
In the semifinals
of the ongoing World Championships, Romania is pitted against defending Olympic
and European champions Norway, a team that outclassed Montenegro in the
quarterfinals, 26-25. Here is Romania’s
Cristina Neagu about the game:
Norway is Norway. We have never
managed to grab a win against them in the last 10-15 years. But we’d rather
make the most of these moments right now, have a rest tomorrow and…may God’s
will be done! In the semifinal game we will try to do our best on the pitch, at least as we’ve done in our last
two games.
We recall that Romania remains the only
country that, starting in 1957, has participated in all the final tournaments
of the World Championships, winning
three medals: gold in 1962 and silver in 1973 and 2005, respectively.