Everything still to be decided between Fleury and Midtjylland


For the first time in their history, Fleury played in front of a full house of 5,000 spectators in the Orleans Arena.

And this added pressure seemed to take its toll on them early on as the packed house witnessed a cagey start to this final from the home side.

Women's Cup Winners' Cup final, Leg 1  
Fleury Loiret Handball (FRA) vs FC Midtiylland (DEN) (11:11) 23:22

The normally solid French defence could not stop the Midtjylland back court players early on and the Jorgensen sisters took advantage of this situation. After 20 minutes the Danes were leading 10:7.

A change of goalkeeper and some turnovers allowed Fleury to go back to the dressing room with level pegging (11:11).


Fred Bougeant, Fleury's coach, must have had some strong words with his squad during the break because the second half saw his girls upping their intensity in defence.

Zoqbi was making numerous saves, Kamdop and Barbosa were efficient in attack and soon Fleury were three goals ahead (20:17) with just ten minutes remaining.


But just when Midtjylland was seemingly about to collapse, Niombla, Fleury's playmaker got a red card.


The dynamics of the game changed once again and the Danish side shortened the gap to just one goal in the end thanks to Jorgensen's last second goal of the game as the game rang out 23:22.

For Fleury, top scorers were Barbosa and Kamdop with six goals each while Groot scored eight for Midtjylland.

"We are satisfied with the one-goal deficit. We know we could have been a bit worse, but we managed to remain calm and focused on preserving our chances for the home leg,” said FCM coach Helle Thomsen.

"I am very proud of his girls; we felt the pressure in the first half, but we managed to let ourselves enjoy the space more in the second half. Winning against such a team feels like a victory already," said Fleury's Fred Bougeant.