Article by Maria Olteanu – Published Sunday, March 22, 2026, 7:58 p.m. / Updated Sunday, March 22, 2026, 7:58 p.m.
Romania and Turkey face each other tonight, in the second leg of the preliminaries of the World Handball Championship. The match started at 19:14, it is liveTEXT on GSP.ro and broadcast on Pro Arena. The start was delayed after there was a power failure in Buzău.
LIVE » Romania – Turkey 16-21
Break at Buzau! Terrible half for our national team, who lead after the first 30 minutes by 5 goals, 16-21. Practically, all the advantage in the round was canceled, and in the second half it will be played from 0-0
25th minute: Romania – Turkey 10-15. Opponents break away at 5 goals and practically cancel Romania's advantage in the round, which was imposed at 5 goals
22nd minute: Romania – Turkey 10-14. Still four goals ahead for the opponents. At this score, Romania is only one goal ahead in the overall
Minute 20: Romania – Turkey 9-13. The Turks remain at +4 on the table, Romania's attack works very hard
18th minute: Romania – Turkey 7-11. Terrible half for our players. Turkey goes to +4 on the table and is close to recovering the deficit from the round. Buricea time-out
Minute 17: Romania – Turkey 7-10. The Turks break away for the first time with 3 goals, the situation is getting more and more complicated for the tricolors, who are no longer able to achieve anything on the offensive phase
Minute 16: Romania – Turkey 7-9. Stanciuc converts from 7 meters, immediately the Turks also score
Minute 15: Romania – Turkey 6-8. The Turks go to two goals again, Romania plays in numerical inferiority
Minute 14: Romania – Turkey 6-7. Interception and goal on counter attack by Nistor
Minute 13: Romania – Turkey 5-6. Stanciuc scores from 7 meters
11th minute: Romania – Turkey 4-6. From 7 meters, Turkey breaks away. Romania had 3-1 at the start of the match, the opponents are now +2 on the table. Buzle misses again
The 10th minute: Romania – Turkey 4-5. For the second time in the match, the opponents are ahead in the table. Harder moments for Romania in attack
Minute 6: Romania – Turkey 3-3. A few inattentive sequences by the tricolors, and Turkey equalise
Minute 3. Romania – Turkey 2-0. Buzle widens the gap, a perfect start for Romania
Minute 1. Romania – Turkey 1-0. Vereș scores the first goal for the “tricolors”
Game start! The match started 14 minutes late
The match in Buzău will start with a slight delay, because there was a power failure that affected the last 15 minutes of the two teams' warm-up
The Romanian national men's handball team has not participated in a World Championship since 2011when he ranked 19th in the competition organized in Sweden.
The generation trained by George Buricea hopes to interrupt the disastrous period. Once the formality against the Turks is completed, Romania will have only one national team to overcome on the way to the World Cup in Germany.
But the mission will be hellish, a double against Sander Sagosen's Norway. Norway is one of the forces of European handball, the national team that at the final winter tournament played in the main groups of the competition, where it managed to beat Spain and draw with Portugal.
A very important victory for us. Some say it was an easy match, but for us it wasn't like that at all, especially considering the absences from the team. 7-8 players were not with us. I'm happy for the young people who debuted, some of them, and they didn't do badly.
Sorry about the end of the game, we should have been more serious and finished with a bigger lead. Unfortunately, we also lost two important players, Dani Vasile and Andras Szasz. Congratulations to Dani Vasile, who had an amazing game, even though he was not 100% fit
– George Buricea, after the tour against Turkey
The team of the Romanian men's national handball team for the double with Turkey:
- Vasile Dan Lucian – SCM Politehnica Timișoara
- Rusu Dumitru Vlăduț – CSM Vaslui
- Vereș Denis – AHC Potaissa Turda
- Andrei Alexandru George – SCM Politehnica Timișoara
- Dedu Călin – CS Dinamo Bucharest
- Oancea Bogdan Andrei – CSM Bucharest
- Szasz Andras – SCM Politehnica Timisoara
- Grigore Paul Sorin – CSU Suceava
- Nistor-Ioniță Ionuț – CS Dinamo Bucharest
- Ilie Gabriel Cristian – Partizan Belgrade
- Botea Tudor – CS Minaur Baia Mare
- Buzle Iosif Andrei – CS Dinamo Bucharest
- Caba Liviu Emil – Partizan Belgrade
- Stanciuc Daniel – CS Dinamo Bucharest
- Drăgan Andrei Valeriu – CSM Bucharest
- Radu Codrin George – CSU Suceava
- Stanescu Ionuț Adrian – Wybrzeze Gdansk
Who is going to the 2027 World Cup
The 2027 World Cup will be hosted by Germany from January 13-31. Already qualified for the final tournament:
- Germany (host)
- Denmark (title holder)
- Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay (South America)
- Japan, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait (Asia)
- Egypt, Cape Verde, Algeria, Angola and Tunisia (Africa)
- Croatia, Iceland, Sweden, Portugal (Europe)
- United States of America (wild card)
Another 10 European national teams will qualify after the play-off matches. The table of 32 would be completed by two other wild cards.
