Györ and Glassverket to decide group matches berth between them

There were no surprises in Drammenshallen Saturday, as Györ Audi ETO KC and hosts Glassverket qualified for the deciding match for the Women's EHF Champions League group phase ticket.

However, the way in which the two teams reached the final were not exactly alike.

While Györ defeated WHC Radnicki Kragujevac by no less than 29 goals, Glassverket got in certain trouble against SERCODAK Dalfsen, before the win was a fact.

On Sunday afternoon, Dalfsen and Kragujevac will meet in the match for the third place, and after that, Györ and Glassverket will decide the group matches ticket between them.

Women's EHF Champions League Qualification

Group 1

Semi-finals:

Györi Audi ETO KC (HUN) vs WHC Radnicki Kragujevac (SRB) 42:13 (20:7)

Accompanied by nearly 50 enthusiastic Hungarian fans, whose singing repertoire even included Auld Lang Syne and Jingle Bells, Györ had no problems reaching the deciding match for the group phase berth.

The EHF Champions League winners from 2013 and 2014 were leading 5:0, when Kragujevac scored their first goal. At that point, the match was ten minutes and 41 seconds old, and the pattern did not change for the rest of the first half.

A concentrated Györ defence only allowed the Serbian champions to score three goals in the first 30 minutes, and after 18 minutes, Györ had already established a ten goal lead at 12:2.

Already at half-time, the favourites had reached 20 goals and were leading by 17.

Györ coach Ambros Martín gave match praxis to his entire bench, and all field players apart from Eduarda Amorim, who is still on her way back after her long injury break, made it to the scoreboard.

The fact that Martín let his substitutes play a lot of the time, especially in the second half, did not reduce the difference between the teams, though.

Györ continued to increase their lead at a steady pace and ended by winning by no less than 29 goals.

“I am pleased that we managed to focus on ourselves and our own game, as we had agreed before the match,” Martín told ehfCL.com.

“I am also happy that my players proved able to stay focused even after leading by 17 goals at half-time. Now, all we can do is wait for the deciding match tomorrow,” he added.

Right wing Jana Knedlikova scored seven goals for Györ, right back Andjela Janjusevic three for Kragujevac.

Glassverket (NOR) vs SERCOCAK Dalfsen (NED) 26:21 (15:8)

Just like in the first match of the day, one of the teams started by getting up 5:0. This was the lead, Glassverket managed to establish within the first six minutes, but that was just about the only similarity to the match between Györ and Kragujevac.

Dalfsen soon reduced to 6:5, and even though the hosts got up by seven goals at half-time, the Dutch champions still created doubt about the result, as they reduced the deficit to only two goals a couple of times around the middle of the second half.

A great performance by Krist Zimmerman in the Dalfsen goal played its part. So did the fact that the back court players from Dalfsen were particularly good at finding line player Fabienne Logtenberg. Five goals from Logtenberg came out of this and it was only when Glassverket found solutions to stop the passes to her, that the home team managed to finally decide the match.

“It became a bit messy today, and we did not present ourselves the way we would have liked to. Dalfsen were good at making us look bad, and we will definitely have to improve in several areas by tomorrow,” Glassverket coach Kenneth Gabrielsen told ehfCL.com.

Left wing Hege Bakken Wahlquist scored nine goals for Glassverket, while right back Ana Pavkovic scored five for Dalfsen, just like Fabienne Logtenberg.