FTC emerge victorious over battling Podravka

The Hungarian champions had to give their all to break the brave Podravka Vegeta side who threatened to put an end to FTC’s unbeaten run.

GROUP B
HC Podravka Vegeta (CRO) vs FTC-Rail Cargo Hungária (HUN) 24:27 (12:16)

Podravka were eager to claim their first win of the season in their last home game, but Ferencváros came out firing and immediately took things under control.

The unbeaten group leader took an early lead by goals from right wing Mónika Kovacsicz and  the visitors were able to keep in front for most of the first half in spite of great efforts from Ekaterina Nemeskalo and Lana Frankovic.

The visitors’ defense worked well while in offence Zita Szucsánszki fed Piroska Szamoránsky with clever passes and the pivot finished the game with five goals from five chances.

Podravka managed to stay in sight and when the pace of the visitors dipped the Croatian champions seized momentum and started climbing back by goals from Dora Krsnik. Fifteen minutes from the final whistle the Koprovnica outfit equalized and the two teams entered the endgame neck and neck.

After a mediocre second half performance Ferencváros once again found top gear and managed to regain the lead by goals from the cool-headed Nerea Pena and eventualy defeated the battling home side.

Podravka Vegeta coach Goran Mrdjen thought lady luck was not on the side of the home team: "FTC is very good and powerful team, they were dominating during the whole match. We showed that we can play against them, but it was not enough. We could be closer if we scored when we hit the post few times."

Gabor Elek meanwhile was impressed with how far the opposition had come on in recent weeks: "I think that we deserved the win, but the home team have made very good development during the last few weeks."