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A nudge from the referees helped Russia win, Romania lost the game they already won

Russia managed to break Georgia in the final minutes, but once again exposed all the shortcomings of their defense. Romania almost managed to surprise Greece, but instead, they don't have any chance of reaching the final either

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Russia's performance against Georgia wasn't impressive either, but with a bit help from the referees, they managed to win. We're not trying to say that Georgia should be forgiven for the stupid things they did, but 21 ejection was a bit too much. The final score sounds convincing (16-12), but Georgia were one goal up five minutes before the end. Ejection after ejection then followed allowing Russia to score enough goals for a convincing win.

- This match should have been settled earlier. We're a better team, and after the 8-4 lead, we did some stupid mistakes and payed the price for inexperience. But, I never once doubted that we would win because I know we're a better team - caoch Sagajev said.

Russia's player Yankov admits it was quite strange that the opponent were short handed for the entire finish of the match, but says the referees' decisions were fair (you don't say?!), because Georgia's game was foul and aggressive. 

The win aside, the match once again exposed all the shortcomings of the Russian defense. The weak Georgia scored when ever they wanted (seven goals in the third quarter). Playing teams that are better is tough like that, and Romania are definitely better.

Rarely do you see a match like the one Romania played against Greece. They managed to gamble away everything after having a magnificent opportunity to get only one step away from the quarter final. They were in a 3-0 lead after only a few minutes, but stupid mistakes allowed Greece to make a comeback. 44 seconds before the end, the score was 9-8 for Romania and they were attacking, but missed, and allowed Greece to score an equalizer, and then another goal in the final second for the win.

- Greece won deservedly. They took advantage of our mistakes. We simply don't have the individual quality that could settle situations such as this one, and that is why we always stay in the bottom part of the table. We don't seem to be a team, and that's 100% on me - coach Stanojevic said.

The players had nothing to add to that. The only question is, how will they bounce back from such a disappointing outcome? They are better than Russia, there's no doubt about it. There's nothing the Russians will be able to do to stop Radu, but motivation might be the key here...