How did the second friendly between Hungary and Romania end, the one played behind closed doors?

• The European Championship, hosted by Denmark, Norway and Sweden, takes place between January 15 and February 1;

• Romania's opponents in the final tournament will be Denmark, the host country of the world champion of the last four editions, Olympic champion and European vice-champion, Portugal and North Macedonia.

Friday, January 9, Romania's national men's handball team was defeated 33-23 by Hungaryat the end of a game that was dominated by the national team of the neighboring country. A day later, the two teams met again, this time in a “closed-doors” duel.

Romania received 40 goals from Hungary, in a duel in which a lot was experienced

This time, Hungary did not lead the hostilities as clearly and, at halftime, it had an advantage of only two goals: 18-16. After returning from the locker room, the Hungarians showed a special offensive appetite and scored 22 goals, the game having an extremely alert pace.

After 60 minutes, Hungary prevailed 40-34 and handed Romania another defeat.

“It was a different game to the one on Friday, but very useful. Both teams tried different things, with experimentation being a priority in both attack and defence. There were things that worked for us and things that didn't, or at least not completely, but we can still work on these aspects until the European Championship. We need to improve our defense and attack and assimilate the lessons learned,” Hungary coach Chema Rodriguez was quoted as saying by nemzitsport.hu.

Romania's schedule in Group B from Euro 2026

• January 16, 19:00 » Portugal vs. Romania

• January 18, 21:30 » Romania vs. Denmark

• January 20, 19:00 » North Macedonia vs. Romania

Romania's team, for the preparation matches before EC 2026

• Goalkeepers: Cătălin Haidu (Flensburg), Ionut Iancu (Dinamo), Mihai Popescu (Potaissa Turda)

• Extreme righta: Sorin Grigore (CSU Suceava), Ionuț Nistor (Dinamo)

• Enter right: Ionuț Stănescu (Wybrzeze Gdansk), Cristian Ghiță (Potaissa Turda)

• Center: Daniel Stanciuc (Dinamo)

• Left integers: Tudor Botea (Minaur Baia Mare), Andrei Buzle (Dinamo), Ștefan Cumpănici (Minaur Baia Mare), Robert Militaru (Dinamo), Răzvan Trif (Poli Timisoara), Dan Racotea (Górnik Zabrze)

• Far left: Alexandru Andrei (Poli Timisoara), Denis Vereș (Potaissa Turda)

• pivot: Călin Dedu (Dinamo), Robert Nagy (Minaur Baia Mare), Andras Szasz (Poli Timisoara).

• Andrei Drăgan, Dan Vasile, Demis Grigoraș, Gabriel Ilie, Liviu Caba and Erik Pop are absent for medical reasons