Germany reach main round at Lloret 2015

While several teams had already reached the main round at the European Championships before Day 3, there were two true do-or-die matches being played on Thursday.

In the men's event, Germany eventually made it among the last eight teams courtesy of a 2:1 win against Poland, and Ukraine's women also reached the main round thanks to a 2:1 win against Croatia.

The situation ahead of both matches was the same: Whoever wins, goes through. Whoever loses, has to be satisfied with a spot in the placement round.

Germany took the first set 19:16, but Poland won the second 17:16. In the shoot-out Poland's Marcin Miedzinski had the chance to bring also this third set to extra time, but he failed with the fifth attempt and granted Germany a 6:4 win.

In the day's last match Ukraine's women had won the first set 18:14, but Croatia won the second 15:11 - a shoot-out needed to decide the last team to qualify and eventually Ukraine were the lucky ones with a 6:4 win.

After all preliminary round matches have been played, Croatia, Spain, Ukraine and Germany have qualified in the men's event from Group A; Russia, Serbia, Hungary and Norway made it from Group B (complete rankings and results).

In the women's event Hungary, Italy, Russia and Poland made it from Group A, while Norway, Ukraine, Netherlands and Spain qualified from Group B.

Tomorrow's main round matches will determine the rankings for the quarter-finals on Saturday in which the first placed teams of each group meet the fourth placed teams of the other group and the respective second and third ranked teams face each other.