Serbia-Croatia, Hungary-Italy are the Tbilisi semifinals

© Richard Schönebeck

Three out of four countries that saw their senior men's teams reaching the recent 2014 Budapest European championships semifinals had their 19 & under junior teams doing the same in Tbilisi, Georgia on Thursday. Serbia and Italy dominated in their respective quarterfinal matches while Hungary and Croatia received significant more opposition but still managed to advance to the final four. The first of four battles for the semis saw Serbia absolutely stunning friend and foe by holding Greece scoreless as they powered their way to an 0-12 blowout. Hungary was up next but had all troubles with overcoming Montenegro. The magyars led throughout but saw Montenegro coming back to trailing just a single goal on four occasions in the second half. However the György Horkai coached men held on as they edged the Montenegrins 8-9. Croatia also advanced thanks to a 7-9 victory over Spain. A big part of the triumph came in the second period when the Croats turned around a 3-2 deficit into leading 3-4 at half-time. In the final session Croatia secured the two-goal victory. Italy also secured a confident win as they controlled their quarterfinal match-up with the Netherlands from start to finish en route to a 6-13 final score. Now the European Junior Championships in the Georgian capital will see the big powerhouse clashes as Serbia takes on Croatia and Hungary meets Italy for a spot in the gold medal final. 

2014 European Men's Junior Championships
19 & under

Tbilisi, Georgia
24-31 August

Schedule and results

Thursday, 28 August - quarterfinal round

France vs. Romania 5-6 (1-3, 3-1, 0-1, 1-1)
Turkey vs. Russia 13-8



Quarterfinals
Greece vs. Serbia 0-12 (0-2, 0-3, 0-2, 0-5)
Montenegro vs. Hungary 8-9 (2-3, 1-2, 2-3, 3-1)
Spain vs. Croatia 7-9 (3-2, 0-2, 2-2, 2-3)
Netherlands vs. Italy 6-13 (1-3, 1-4, 1-4, 3-2)





Friday, 29 August - semi-final round

11.00: Greece vs. Spain
12.40: Montenegro vs. Netherlands

Semi-finals
14.20: Serbia vs. Croatia
16.00: Hungary vs. Italy

Saturday, 30 August

13.00: LRM1 vs. LRM2 - (15th/16th place)
14.40: WRM1 vs. WRM2 - (13th/14th place)
16.20: LQF1 vs. LQF2 - (11th/12th place)
18.00: WQF1 vs. WQF2 - (9th/10th place)

Sunday, 31 August - final day

13.00: LSF1 vs. LSF2 - (7th/8th place)
14.40: WSF1 vs. WSF2 - (5th/6th place)
16.20: LSF3 vs. LSF4 - (3rd/4th place)
18.00: WSF3 vs. WSF4 - (1st/2nd place)