Latvia's U18 handball team finishes European Championship in 5th place, beats Ukraine again

Latvia's U18 youth handball team closed out the European Championship with a win over their Ukrainian counterparts, taking the final match of the tournament 30:25 (18:10 at halftime).

Notably, Ukraine was also Latvia's opening opponent in the tournament. On Monday, after trailing 13:14 following a weak first half, the Latvian side turned things around in the second half to win 29:21.

Tournament progress

After beating Ukraine, Latvia went on to defeat Romania 28:25, before suffering a loss to Lithuania, 17:21. Latvia missed out on a semifinal spot for the medal round, losing to Estonia 25:27 the day before. Ukraine, meanwhile, lost the so-called "consolation semifinal" to the Netherlands, 29:30.

Today's match

In the decisive match for fifth place, Latvia dominated from the start, leading 18:10 at halftime. In the second half, Ukraine attempted to close the gap but never managed to bring the deficit below five goals.

Latvian goalkeeper Kristers Vēveris made 13 saves out of 25 shots faced. Edvards Toks led the attack, scoring six goals from nine attempts. For Ukraine, Volodymyr Kolesnyk was the most accurate scorer with eight goals from twelve attempts.

Other results

In the medal matches, Estonia convincingly beat the Netherlands 28:18. The tournament's grand final featured Lithuania and Romania, who had earlier defeated Luxembourg (27:19) and Greece (33:27) respectively.

Latvia's squad, led by head coach Rihards Leja, was made up mainly of players from the Salaspils, Dobele and South Kurzeme sports schools.