Women’s Trophy reaches semi-final stage

After three days of preliminary round competition at the 2018 IHF/EHF Women’s Trophy in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the top two sides from each of the two playing groups are ready for the semi-finals. Hosts Bosnia-Herzegovina, Luxembourg, Belgium and Estonia have qualified for the penultimate matches, with Belgium set to meet Luxembourg and Estonia to take on the home team on Saturday.

Both Belgium and Bosnia-Herzegovina won all three of their preliminary round matches, with Belgium taking decisive victories against Estonia, 31:18; Moldova, 37:28; and Cyprus, 27:18. Bosnia-Herzegovina defeated Azerbaijan 34:16, Great Britain 34:20, and Luxembourg 39:14.

Competing in Group A alongside Belgium, second-ranked Estonia recovered from their opening loss against the group winners to beat Cyprus 34:14 and Moldova 33:25. In Group B, Luxembourg’s only loss was to Bosnia-Herzegovina. They drew 27:27 versus Azerbaijan and defeated Great Britain 28:20.

As the third and fourth-ranked sides in their groups, Moldova, Cyprus, Great Britain and Azerbaijan will now contest the cross matches to determine the final placement in the eight-nation tournament. The semi-finals and first round of placement games will take place on Saturday, with the medal matches and second placement round on Sunday. All games will be streamed live on ehfTV.com.

Following the preliminary round, the top scorer of the Women’s Trophy is Azerbaijan’s Kamila Bayramova, with 26 goals. Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Isidora Krsic is close behind, with 24.