A BATTLING performance from Great Britain men was not enough to beat Romania in the opening match of their World Championship qualifying tournament in Finland on Friday evening.
After a stuttering first half which the Romanians won 11-21, Great Britain hit back well after the break and out-scored their opponents 16-15. However, it was not enough to overhaul the deficit and GB ended up losing 27-36.
Sebastian Prieto top-scored for GB with six goals, while Robin Garnham was also impressive and netted four times.
Both GB goalkeepers were in form too, with Bob White saving two from three penalties, while Jesper Parker made 14 saves and finished with a 38 per cent shot save ratio.
“We’re happy with the result,” said assistant coach Bill Baillie. “But we were still disappointed because we had done a thorough analysis on Romania before we came here, but the first half wasn’t good.
“The lads looked nervous, but after half time they looked a different team and played well, and at one point we fought back to just three down and really had the Romanians on the rack.
“Technical errors let us down once again, but we’ve arrived on the international scene now and we’re learning from every game.”
GB continue their matches at Vantaa with a game against Bosnia Herzegovina on Saturday afternoon.
Pic: GB’s Robin Garnham. (Photo: Roel Custers Sittard).
5 comments:
Well done boys. Followed the game on online stream. Great performance, especially second half. Best of luck tomorrow against Bosnia.
Stephan Paustian-Bulmer / Men's U/21s
This result and the ones recently would have been a pipe dream in 2005. Losing by around 10 goals in International handball is definitely a platform to work on. Well done all the lads and the coaching and management team
Really impressive and it is getting better from game to game. Losing by 9 goals against Romania isn`t too bad. I hope you can add another good game tomorow.
Stephan,
Could you please describe how you managed to watch the match online?
Thanks.
A friend of mine has account over a website for watching football and other sport online. There was also a link for the game with Romanian commentary on there. Missed most of the first half until I found one it though. No idea what site it is, I'd have to ask.
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