Neagu sets sight on second trophy

If you try to describe the way Cristina Neagu plays and understands handball, you easily use the clichés normally used to describe the beauty of a transcendent talent.

The 29-year old superstar has everything up her sleeve: the most powerful shot in European handball, a great understanding with the line players and the wing, and, most of all, a handball IQ that will probably see her once become a world class coach.

On top of that, it has been her otherworldly ambition that helped her navigate through a season of misfortunes, with injuries that could have seen the end of her career.

But Neagu is still a headache for every opponent’s coach who is trying to devise new ways to stop her. But here is the catch: with the current incarnation of CSM Bucuresti, if you allocate most of your resources to stop Neagu, then you have a problem with Isabelle Gulldén, Amanda Kurtovic or Nathalie Hagman.

Neagu is the crown jewel, but CSM can still win without a brilliant game from her.

No win against Györ in Budapest

Neagu has calculated her steps carefully in the last five seasons, boosting her chances to win as many trophies as possible. She wanted to complete a meaningful legacy after her career was in limbo six years ago due to injuries.

Neagu will probably never win six trophies in the Women’s EHF Champions League, like Bojana Popovic and Ausra Fridrikas have done, but she surely is doing everything she can to add to the title she won in 2015 with Buducnost.

“I was quite clear with the reasons of why I joined CSM this summer. I think it gave me the best chance to compete for the Women’s EHF Champions League and I was also coming home to try doing this. It was kind of a perfect storm,” says the 29-year-old sharpshooter.

The first part of the journey has been completed for the Romanian star as CSM eliminated Metz Handball in the quarter-finals to proceed to the Women’s EHF FINAL 4 in Budapest.

It will be the fifth consecutive FINAL 4 for Neagu after playing the previous four editions with Buducnost. Three times, including the 2014 final, the Montenegrin side lost to Györ - the team CSM will line up against in the semi-final on 12 May in the Papp László Budapest Sportaréna.

“They are not the bogey side they used to be”

Yet Neagu remains upbeat before the huge challenge, in front of 12,000 raucous Hungarian fans.

“I think the chances are fifty-fifty. Györ are still playing at home, with their fans behind them,” Neagu says. “But I must say I think that they are not the same team from the last years. They are not the bogey side they used to be. Of course, they have a lot of injuries, but we played against them and we proved that we could win against any team in Europe.”

There are only two matches separating Neagu from her second Champions League title and the Romanian side are surely hoping to emulate their performance from two years ago, when they beat Györ in the final after a tense penalty shoot-out.

“We played against them, won once, lost once in the main round. There have been several changes from that point. They had a lot of injuries. Losing Nora Mørk will be tough for their attack, as is losing Zsuzsanna Tomori in defence,” adds Neagu.

“CSM is not a one-trick pony”

But probably the biggest challenge for Neagu is to play against Ambros Martin. The current Györ coach is also the Romanian women’s national team coach and there is no trick that Neagu can do which could surprise him.

“I know Ambros very well, he is a very good coach. He is very rigorous in his preparations and I am sure he will have a faultless game plan against us,” says Neagu, who scored 101 times this season, four times less than Iveta Luzumova, whose club THC has been eliminated from the competition.

So, how do opponents have to defend against one of the world’s best players?

“When we played the second leg against Metz, they tried a more aggressive defence against me,” Neagu says. “I do not know if it worked, but we have several other players who could take the ball and put pressure on the opponent. CSM is not a one-trick pony.”

The 29-year old left back concedes that CSM have not peaked yet in the competition, with their flaws on display in several games. But having a superstar like Neagu on your side can always prove decisive in do-or-die games.