Last season's finalists will not be missing from the CL: Lada qualify with ease.
Lada continues in Group C
Lada Togliatti won the tournament in Lublin and qualified for the CL. They won all three matches against Lublin, Milli Piyango and Sagunto with great efficiency. Nothing less could be expected from last season's CL finalists.
Day 1
Lada Togliatti defeated SAFO Lublin 34:21 (16:13). The best Lada player was Irina Bliznova with seven goals. Dorota Malczewska scored eight goals for the Polish team.
Sagunto won against Milli Piyango by 44:27 (22:17). Milica Danilovic scored 12 goals, while Yeliz Ozel scored nine.
Day 2
The Turkish Champion could not keep the rhythm with the excellent Russians. Lada Togliatti defeated them by 35:19 (16:14). In first half of match it seemed that Ozel was playing on her own against Lada. Although the Russians did not play brilliantly, they showed that these two teams were on a totally different level. The best player of the match was Yeliz Ozel with eight goals. Bliznova, Chernoivanenko, Kolokoltseva and Muravyeva score five for Lada.
Sagunto were surprised in their second match. Lublin defeated them 27:26. The home team started very well and they had the lead all the way until end of the first half when Sagunto managed to equalise and take two goal lead – 15:17.
The second half was very equal and intense. In the last minute, the Polish had a three-goal lead but Sagunto managed to decrease the margin and match ended with score 27:26. Malczewska and Barbosa scored ten goals each.
Day 3
In their last match Lada Togliatti defeated Sagunto 33:24 (18:7). The Spanish team did not recover from the previous defeat and they were beaten once again. The Russians simply knew how to take advantage of many mistakes made by Sagunto. The best player of the match was Russian goalkeeper Sidorova. Bad news for Lada: Muravyeva was seriously injured and she had to be taken to hospital.
In the last match of the tournament Lublin won over Milli Piyango 22:15.
Lada Togliatti won this tournament very convincingly and qualified to Group C. They will join Hypo, Kometal and Larvik to form a really tough group.
TEXT:
Ivan Ambros