DAY REVIEW: The teams join Cyprus and Georgia as the line-up for the semi-finals of the tournament in Tbilisi has been confirmed
Bulgaria and Moldova both comfortably won their last group match at the IHF/EHF Trophy 2021 Wednesday and reached the semi-finals as the runners-up in their respective groups.
Cyprus and Georgia had already been confirmed as the two group winners. In Friday's semi-finals, Cyprus take on Moldova at 14:30 CEST and tournament hosts Georgia are up against Bulgaria at 17:00 CEST.
On Wednesday, Bulgaria eased past Andorra 38:21 in the last group A match before Moldova proved too strong for Azerbaijan, 28:16, to conclude group B.
Andorra and Azerbaijan will contest the two 5/6 placement matches on Friday and Saturday.
GROUP A:
Bulgaria vs Andorra 38:21 (16:8)
- Bulgaria lived up to their status as favourites for this match and they had the job more or less done at half-time with a comfortable eight-goal lead
- goals galore after the break as the teams combined for 35 goals
- Kristian Vasilev with nine goals and Sveltin Dimitrov with seven were Bulgaria's leading scorers; Unai Ruiz Ripoll netted seven times for Andorra
GROUP B:
Azerbaijan vs Moldova 16:28 (7:13)
- Moldova were ahead from the get-go and they consistently extended their lead until a six-goal difference after 30 minutes
- the gap grew to 10 goals for the first time early in the second half, when the outcome of the match had long left no room for doubt anymore
- Moldova goalkeeper Valeriu Erhan was named player of the match by local organisers
After a rest day, the action at the IHF/EHF Trophy 2021 in Tbilisi resumes on Friday, with the first leg of the 5/6 placement match between Andorra and Azerbaijan at 12:00 CEST, followed by the two semi-finals. All games will be streamed live on EHFTV.
TEXT:
EHF / Eric Willemsen