In an exciting final match, team Portugal consisting of Rui-Edgar Franco and Joao Grilo have won the qualification tournament in Tirana, Albania, for this year’s World Cup of Pool. They have outplayed team Hungary with Gabor Solymosi and Gabor Antal 8:4.
On their road to glory, Portugal had some heavyweights to eliminate. Yesterday, they started with triumphs over North Cyprus 2 with 8:5, then Slovakia 8:6 and finally Croatia 2 with 8:6 which took them into the quarter-finals against Switzerland today.
Switzerland was a high class opponent with Euro-Tour regulars Dimitri Jungo and Ronald Regli on the team. But Portugal prove to be better and pipped the Suisse team 8:6 in a close encounter. Then, they went on and took down team Croatia 1 with Ivica Putnik and Tomislav Susic 8:4 before they entered into the final match against Hungary.
Team Hungary had made their way over Slovakia 8:5 (Jakub Koniar & Balasz Koles) and Belarus 1 (Uladzislau Shopik & Uladzislau Tsyrykau) with 8:5 today.
Team Portugal will now go to the main event, Matchroom’s World Cup of Pool, which will be held in October 8-14, 2016, in China. The exact venue will be published shortly. Team Hungary will be the first substitutes in case one of the nominated teams cannot attend the event.
Top eight teams qualifier:
1. Portugal
2. Hungary
3. Croatia 1
Belarus 1
5. Switzerland
Croatia 2
Denmark
Slovakia
The tournament was played on up to 24 tables which are all streamed LIVE throughout the whole event. In order to be able to follow all the action LIVE, premium membership can be purchased at www.kozoom.com. Once a premium membership is held, all events for the respective period of time can be viewed LIVE. Additionally, a huge video gallery is contained in the website.
The qualifying event was hosted by the European Governing Body for Pool, the European Pocket Billiard Federation (EPBF) and organized by International Billiard Promotion (IBP). Information about the qualifying event can be found at www.eurotouronline.com. For further information and reference about the main event please go to the event website http://www.matchroompool.com/world-cup-of-pool/ .