It marked a fourth successive Romanian win at the continental event.

Neagu, the tournament's leading scorer, found the back of the Czech goal six times in the Helsingborg Arena.

She is now only 10 goals behind her career best haul of 53 goals at the European Championship event in 2010.

But her team had to work hard to finish on top against spirited opposition who had already exceeded expectations by reaching the main round phase. 

Romania swiftly took a 5-2 lead and moved 17-14 ahead at half-time.

They were then pinned-back to 20-20 after 42 minutes before opening daylight again in the closing stages.

"Maybe we are really tired, we had few really, really hard games," said winning goalkeeper Denisa Dedu afterwards.

"Today it was a very tough game, but I'm very happy because in the end we won."

Romania will face Denmark tomorrow in a direct playoff for a semi-final spot.

The Danes were held to a 26-26 draw by Russia tonight and consequently slip to third behind the Romanians.

Norway guaranteed themselves a semi-final spot with a thrilling 24-23 win over Hungary.

Hungary, Russia and the Czech Republic now have no chance of reaching the semi-finals.