Clashes of women’s handball giants open 2015 MVM EHF FINAL4

Just two days after the last quarter-final in the Women’s EHF Champions League was played, the four teams that made it to the 2015 MVM EHF FINAL4 got to know their respective opponents, as the draw was conducted at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest on Tuesday.

Given the strengths of the four teams involved, two true clashes of women’s handball giants open the 2015 MVM EHF FINAL as winners of 2011 Larvik face Dinamo-Sinara in Semi-final 1 and WHC Vardar SCBT play 2012 winners Buducnost in Semi-final 2.

The playing times were also being announced with one semi-final being played at 14:15 hrs (local time) and the other one at 16:45 hrs on Saturday, 9 May. The order of the matches will be confirmed following negotiations with TV partners. The match for third place and the final on Sunday, 10 May will throw off at 14:30 hrs and 17:00 hrs respectively.

All matches of the 2015 MVM EHF FINAL4, the final weekend of the Women’s EHF Champions League and pinnacle event of women’s club handball will be played in the Papp László Sportaréna in Budapest.

Vardar and Buducnost have already met in the group matches this season and the perennial Montenegrin beat and drew with Vardar (23:17 / 24:24). They also played against each other in the last year's semi-final with Buducnost winning after extra-time.

"We have bad memories from the previous MVM EHF FINAL4. But I think this year we will do better," Ana Mihajlovska from Vardar said after the draw.

“For 100 percent the match against Vardar will be harder than the the previous ones. Before this season they were big favourites on the paper, but they started very bad. Since Jan Pytlick is on their board, they are back in the game and for both of us it will be a hard match. Small things will decide," Buducnost's Srdjan Markoc commented.

Larvik played Dinamo already nine times in the EHF Champions League in the past winning seven and losing two matches.

"Even before the draw we knew we are going to play against a good team, no matter which of these three. For us it will be important to play the first match on Saturday and hopefully to play the last match on Sunday," Larvik coach Ole Gustav Gjekstad said.

"It is an advantage to come to the tournament with a perfect record of 14 victories. We have a lot of self-confidence but not an arrogant self-confidence. It will be a difficult semi-final, but it is supposed to be difficult," Gjekstad added.

"Every team in the event has a chance to win at this stage, but Larvik are a particularly strong team. We met them in previous seasons and were not able to beat them, but we have a chance," Julia Guseva from Dinamo-Sinara said.