The Latvians defeated Finland with 34:21 (18:8).
Leonards Valkovskis scored seven accurate shots for the Latvian national team, while Elgars Kušners and Marks Lilienfelds scored six goals each.
Filip Valorinta scored five goals for Finland.
It has already been reported that the Austrian handball players lost the first match on Friday at 30:33.
The Latvians will meet Romania in the last match of Group E on Saturday.
In the qualifying phase, the national teams are divided into five groups, each with four teams. The two best teams in each group will qualify for the final phase of the 2024 European Championship, which will be played in Montenegro.
The teams that finish the qualifying phase in third and fourth place in their group will continue to compete in the Serie B championship, joining Georgia, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Belgium and Azerbaijan.
Thanks to previous results, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Croatia, Denmark, Iceland, Hungary, Slovenia, Portugal, Norway, France, Serbia and the Faroe Islands have already qualified for the final round.
To prepare for qualification for the European Championship, the Latvian Under-18 national team played the “2023 Baltic Sea States Cup” test match tournament in the Estonian city of Tartu at the end of December. Success was achieved in the first two matches, beating Estonia with 35:37 and Lithuania with 41:24. On the other hand, in the third match, young Latvians lost to their opponent from the qualifying stage, Finland (29:32).
In July 2023, the Latvian youth teams also met the Romanian national team at the European Open, losing 21:28. The current Under 18 national team played for the first time against Austria.
The Latvian national team is led by Ivars Lācis, assisted by Arnolds Straume and Linda Bogdanova.
Latvian Under 18 national team:
Dāvids Pauls (MSG), Erlens Klešnik (“GWD Minden”, GER), Kristers Vēveris (MSG), Emils Wilson (MSG), Andy Šnepst (MSG), Elgar Kushners (MSG), Einars Borisovs (MSG), Valdis Kalniņš ( MSG), Arza Brunis Butans (“ASK Zemessardze”/LSPA), Haiko Gača Butans (“ASK Zemessardze”/LSPA), Mārtiņš Misulis (MSG), Andis Bors (MSG), Marks Lilienfeld (“2000 Coburg”, GER), Leonards Valkovskis (“2000 Coburg”, GER), Nik Vaskevich (MSG), Christopher Jonas (MSG).
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2024-01-06 14:45:51
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