Following 12 preliminary round matches across three days of action, the semi-final pairings are now known for the 2018 IHF/EHF Women’s Trophy, which is being held in the north-eastern city of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

Belgium won all three of their games in Preliminary Group A (vs Estonia 31:18, vs Moldova 37:28 and Cyprus 27:18) to top the group, while Group B saw hosts Bosnia and Herzegovina also take three victories to finish top (vs Azerbaijan 34:16, Great Britain 34:20 and Luxembourg 39:14).

 

Bottom Group B team Azerbaijan will be kicking themselves after drawing 27:27 against Luxembourg and losing by one to Great Britain (29:28), although their player Kamila Bayramova, tops the scoring charts with 26 strikes.

 

The two group winners are joined in the semi-finals by second-placed Estonia from Group A and Luxembourg, who were runners-up in Group B.  Estonia will play the hosts in the last four, while Luxembourg take on their neighbours Belgium in the second semi-final.

 

The IHF/EHF Women’s Trophy finishes on Sunday, 3 June with the final and is the competition for Europe’s developing handball nations. The 2018 edition features eight teams from across the continent, including: Estonia (EST), Moldova (MDA), Great Britain (GBR), Belgium (BEL), Cyprus (CYP), Azerbaijan (AZE), Luxembourg (LUX) and the hosts, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH).

 

With teams enjoying a rest day today, the IHF/EHF Women’s Trophy is running a ‘Coaches’ Clinic Programme’, overseen by EHF Lecturer Milan Petronijevic.

 

Participants include Women’s Trophy Team Coaches/Assistant Coaches and coaches from the host country Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

The participants have a full day of practical and classroom-based discussions with topics including: steps to make a new handball champion, methodological aspects of sports career, development trends in women’s handball, qualitative analysis of women’s top-level handball performance, Individual skills in defence, game related technical and tactical adaptations and much more.

 

All games will be streamed live and free on ehfTV.com – click HERE to watch. Follow the tournament on the dedicated Facebook and Instagram channels.

 

MATCH SCHEDULE

 

Friday 1 June

Rest Day

 

Saturday 2 June

12:30    Placement Round 5-8: MDA vs AZE

14:30    Placement Round 5-8: GBR vs CYP

16:30    Semi-Final 1: BEL vs LUX

18:30    Semi-Final 2: BIH vs EST

 

Sunday 3 June

11:00    Placement Match 7/8

13:00    Placement Match 5/6

15:00    Bronze Medal

17:00    Final

 

RESULTS

 

Tuesday 29 May

EST vs BEL 18:31

MDA vs CYP 30:22

GBR vs LUX 20:28

AZE vs BIH 16:34

 

Wednesday 30 May

CYP vs EST 14:34

BEL vs MDA 37:28

LUX vs AZE 27:27

BIH vs GBR 34:20

 

Thursday 31 May

BEL vs CYP 27:18

EST vs MDA 33:25

AZE vs GBR 28:29

BIH vs LUX 39:14

 

All match results, standings and scorers can be found HERE.

 

Photos: EHF