“We don't live in those times anymore”

Vladimir Golovin believes that the start of the second half was the one that decided the fate of the game. Romania then came close to 18-17 and missed no less than five chances to equalize, finally, after almost 5 minutes, Hungary scored for 19-17.

The reaction of Vladimir Golovin, after the success with Romania

“It was like we should have won this match twice. In the first half everything worked at the beginning, then in the last ten minutes a lot of things fell apart and the Romanian national team came over us. We played slower, we hesitated, we made mistakes…

The first ten minutes of the second half decided what was going to happen: the defense got ready, the parades came, we also scored easy goals. We managed to finish the match well,” said Vladimir Golovin, quoted by nemzetisport.hu.

“The defense was important, but we are no longer living in the days where you can win games by conceding twenty-four goals. The turnovers and the fact that we were able to settle down were needed.

The Romanians attacked three times to equalize, and then we managed to defend ourselves. We are still at the first level, we still have a long way to go, we hope…”, added the Hungarian coach, after the success with Romania.

With 6 points at the moment, Hungary is very close to qualifying for the quarterfinals of the competition. The next test is against Japan in two days.

For Romania, qualification in the quarter-finals was missed. The objective assumed at the start of the competition remains, a ranking among the top 10 nations, a performance “forbidden” since 2017. For this, victories are needed in the last two games in Rotterdam, against Switzerland and Senegal.

Romania's schedule in the main group:

• December 3 » Hungary – Romania 34-29

• December 5 » Romania – Senegal

• December 7 » Switzerland – Romania