Depleted Midtjylland sail into main round

In spite of missing four key players, FC Midtjylland sailed into the main round without problems, as they defeated Hypo Niederösterreich away Friday night.
The defeat robbed the Austrian hosts of their last main round hope.

Group C
Hypo Niederösterreich (AUT) vs FC Midtjylland (DEN) 27:33 (10:16)

FC Midtjylland are ready for the main round after their clear win at Vienna's outskirts on Friday night.

The Danish champions were missing line player Susan Thorsgaaard due to a finger injury and right back Louise Burgaard due to a sore shoulder.

Furthermore, two other Danish internationals, right wing Trine Østergaard and left back Stine Jørgensen, were rested due to minor injuries.

This did not seem to weaken Midtjylland, though, and neither did they seem to be physically or mentally tired from having played a semi-final in the Danish Cup only 48 hours earlier.

Midtjylland coach Helle Thomsen showed confidence in some of her young talents, and most of them thanked her for that confidence by doing well.

The score was only equal at 1:1. From then on, Midtjylland cruised to 5:1 and later to 12:5 before taking a six goal lead with them to half-time.

As the second half progressed, Midtjylland increased their lead even further to ten goals, before they lost a bit of their focus, and the home team put a little cosmetic on the score.

One of the young talents in the Midtjylland team, 19-year-old right back Pauline Bøgelund scored eight goals for Midstjylland, who are now in six points, while Slovakian left back Alzbeta Tothova scored seven times for Hypo Niderösterreich, who are still at zero points.

Midtjylland coach Helen Thomsen was delighted with her young players: "We left four players at home and played this match with youngsters. It is good to give them a chance, they did a good job and we are happy about the two points."

Feri Kovacs feels his Hypo side are moving in the right direction: "We did five games in the Champions League now and we are improving, but certainly we have to get used to the pace against such a good team.