France men’s handball team Euro 2028 qualifying win over Romania, Digi Mart USA News (Aix-en-Provence, France): France opened its Euro 2028 qualifying campaign with a 34-27 win over Romania at the Arena du Pays d’Aix on Thursday. According to the publisher’s report, the French side secured the result but did not play convincingly.
The match was closely contested for most of the first quarter hour, with Romania keeping pace with France. Andrei Buzle, who scored 10 goals from 13 shots, led the Romanian attack, while France goalkeeper Charles Bolzinger made one save at a 6% efficiency rate.
France gradually gained control of the match. Dika Mem and Aymeric Minne produced the first real break, and Benoît Kounkoud and Elohim Prandi extended the lead to four goals before halftime.
Romania, however, reduced the gap to two goals by the break, as Bogdan Oancea scored three times from three shots.
France came out of the interval with a 4-1 run led by Hugo Descat, who scored four goals from five shots, pushing the lead to five goals. Romania responded through Andrei Dragan and Demis Grigoras to cut the margin to three, but that resistance faded in the final quarter hour.
In the last fifteen minutes, Romania suffered technical errors over a stretch of nearly five minutes, allowing France to pull ahead to an eight-goal lead through Aymeric Minne, Nicolas Tournat, Thibaud Briet and Dika Mem. The two teams traded goals in the closing minutes, and France finished with a seven-goal victory.
France will next travel to Latvia, which lost 33-24 to Poland on the same day.
