Main Round Group I
MCH Arena, Herning (DEN)
Romania - Russia
20:35 (10:19)

Going into their final Main Round, Group I match here at the MCH Arena in Herning, Romania had already set their sights on their semi-final clash against Sweden on Saturday, so their coach Radu Voina rested key players against Russia including Cristina Neagu, Ionela Stanca and Oana Manea.

The effect these changes had soon become apparent through the scoreline as Russia, who were eliminated from the race for medals earlier on in the week, wanted to leave a good impression at the end of their EHF EURO 2010 campaign.

Russia´s defence were much improved than in previous games and their attack took advantage of the  relaxation in their opponents as the Romanian players, who were more concerned to protect themselves against injury, failed to stop the Russian attack.

With coach Evgeny Trefilov an energetic leader from the bench, Russia were on autopilot with Ekaterina Davydenko in great shape, scoring goals for fun from long distance.

Russia found themselves up 11:5 in the 15th minute which was the signal for coach Voina to take his team timeout. After the break in action, Romania tried to make a game of it, but only Melinda Geiger performed at anything like the level that Romania had played at in earlier EHF EURO 2010 games.

But Russia remained in charge of the game and increased their advantage to 10 goals in the 21st minute to make the score 17-7, and going into the break, they lead by nine goals as the scores stood at 19-10.

After the break it quickly became apparent that Radu Voina and Romania did not want to take any risks and that the result of the game was already known.

Romanian took 11 minutes to score their first goal of the second half, as Russia were leading the semi-finalists by 14 at 24:10 and the pattern of scoring continued up to the final buzzer which saw a 16-goal victory for the Russians, who ran out 36:20 winner.

Romania now go on to their semi-final against Sweden on Saturday whilst Russia wait for the results of the Spain v Croatia and Denmark v Montenegro games to learn whether or not they will have another game at EHF EURO 2010 for the 5/6th play-off.

Melinda Geiger was awarded best player for Romania whilst Kseniya Makeeva won the award for Russia.

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