FTC seeking revenge and Cup Winners' Cup final berth

When FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria and FC Midtjylland meet in the first leg of the Women's Cup Winners' Cup semi-finals on Sunday, the Hungarian team will not have the best memories of their Danish adversaries.

In Vienna, Hypo Niederösterreich and Fleury Loiret Handball are playing the first leg of their tie to be the opponent of either FTC and Midtjylland in the final.

Two years in succession, in 2011 and 2012, FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria won the Cup Winners' Cup.

In order to maintain the chance to accomplish that triumph for the third time in four years, they will have to get past a team, against whom they lost in last season's EHF Champions League group matches.

At that time, both matches ended with Danish wins. Midtjylland won 32:23 at home and 26:25 in Budapest.

However, FC Midtjylland coach Helle Thomsen expects a more difficult task this time ahead of the first meeting with FTC in Budapest on Easter Sunday at 17:00 hrs local time live on ehfTV.

"The result of the away match on away ground will really mean a lot. It is fine that we start away, and then we will have to see, where we stand after the first match. It can be a great result, or it can hurt a lot," Helle Thomsen told her club's website.

In 2013, Hypo Niederösterreich won the Cup Winners' Cup, and now the Austrian record champions are chasing a further triumph in the tournament.
In the early evening hours of Saturday, they take on Fleury Loiret Handball in the BSFZ Südstadt in Vienna.

While Hypo have a lot of European achievements to boast, a semi-final in the Challenge Cup in the 2011-12 season is the best performance the French visitors have made in Europe so far.

However, with players like Spanish internationals Alexandrina Barbosa and Marta Mangué as well as French shooting star Gnonsiane Niombla in the team, this may be the year when Fleury get even further.