Article by Costi Pruna – published Thursday, 08 May 2025, 11:36 / Updated Thursday, May 08, 2025 11:36
The Romanian handball national team plays with Portugal today in the European Championship preliminaries.
Before the match in the 5th stage of Group 8, Romania is in 3rd place, with 3 points obtained from a victory and an equal, and needs victory to stay with chances.
The coach George Buricea has 20 players, of which Ionuț Iancu, Grigoraș, Daniel Stanciuc, Andrei Buzle, Robert Militaru, Dan Racoța or Ionuț Nistor are missing. Two internationals are injured and will not play today, goalkeeper Dani Vasile and Inter Gabriel Ilie.
Romania – Portugal »Live at 19:00
The national team is preparing for 3 days in Constanța, and coach George Buricea knows that Romania has to win this decisive match.
“Portugal being already qualified has not come up with all the devoted players and it would be a shame not to take advantage of the situation, especially since in the tour match I played very well 50 minutes. This does not mean that the match will be easy, because Portugal has an important selection area, and the players who will evolve will want to impress the player. We have to win.
A first “7” possible for Romania: Iancu, Andrei, Buzle, Stanciuc, Grigoraș, Nistor, Dedu.
“I hope we can be competitive!”
Portugal is on the 1st place in the group and has already obtained the qualification at EC 2026, after in the first 4 stages he made 7 points. The national team prepared by Paulo Pereira, the future coach from Dinamo, is the representative team with the greatest progress in the last 20 years. The Lusitanians finished in the 4th place the last edition of the World Tournament and qualified 8 times in the European tournaments, and in 2020 they finished in the 6th place.
From the lot moved to Constanța, there are only 4 players who evolved at the CM. The stars are missing: Martim and Kiko Costa, Louis Frade, Salvador Salvador or Rui Silva.
“Until now, the training has been ok. No one is missing the motivation, so everyone is very employed. It is a shame that we have only three days to prepare a new team. Although it is not much, it is also motivating, because it is a challenge for everyone, for them and for me, to see if we can have a competitive team.
A first “7” probably for Portugal: Capdeville, Oliveira, Cavalcanti, Sousa, Nazare, Ferreira, Silva.
In the tour match in Portugal, the Lusitanians won 37-30, after breaking Romania led by 16-12.
