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Date: 12/15/2018
 

It was a history-making performance for EHF EURO 2018 hosts France in the second semi-final on Friday night in 2017 World Championship final venue AccorHotels Arena, as the reigning world champions qualified for their first ever European championship title match with a 27:21 victory over the Netherlands. The first semi-final of the evening saw Russia reach the EURO final for the second time when they defeated Romania 28:22.

 

As neither France nor Russia have ever won the EURO, it will be an entirely new team that raises the trophy in Paris on Sunday evening. After they claimed what was the first Olympic gold medal for a Russian women’s sports team in 2016, the European title is the only one that eludes the record world champions. France have won the world title twice, while their best result at the EURO was bronze in 2002, 2006 and 2016. Russia finished second in 2006, and took bronze in 2000 and 2008.

 

Both of the finalists were mostly in the lead throughout their semi-finals. Romania kept close to Russia until the end of the first half when they trailed by one goal, 15:16, before a dominant second period from the Olympic champions. Rio 2016 MVP Anna Vyakhireva led Russia with 13 goals and was named player of the match.

 

France started strong against the Netherlands and the EURO 2016 runners-up were left to chase their opponents. The Dutch succeeded in closing the score line to one at half-time, 11:12. Five minutes into the second period, Netherlands back Estavana Polman hit the 100-goal mark at EHF EUROs, becoming the first Dutch player in history to reach the milestone, but France proceeded confidently to the final whistle to collect a six-goal victory. France left back Estelle Nze Minko received the player of the match award after her six goals from six attempts.

 

Earlier in the day, record EURO champions Norway claimed fifth on the final ranking when they beat Sweden 38:29 in the play-off match.

 

The bronze-medal match between Romania and the Netherlands will be played on Sunday at 14:00 local time in Paris, before the final, Russia versus France, at 17:30. It is almost the same line-up as the 2016 Olympic medal matches, when Russia beat France 22:19, while Norway defeated the Netherlands 36:26 to take bronze.

 

Photo: EHF / kolektiff

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