Krim claim tense victory in Volgograd

Krim claim tense victory in Volgograd

RK Krim Mercator have caused a surprise upset in Volgograd, successfully turning around an early, substantial lead in favour of hosts Dinamo-Sinara and winning by just one-goal in a nail-biting finish. Saturday's loss means Dinamo are now without a win for two consecutive games. 

GROUP A
Dinamo-Sinara (RUS) vs RK Krim Mercator (SLO) 25:26 (15:13)

Things started well for Dinamo, who were comfortably ahead 7:2 after eight minutes of play. Krim's 6-0 defence was leaking through the middle and Dinamo were proving strong in one-on-one situations.

Goalkeeper Misa Marincek, who was the hero of the match for Krim, was performing well (10 saves in the first half; 17 total) to make up for her team's struggling defence and it was not long before left back Mirjeta Bajramoska (eight goals) regained her shooting form to help the visitors slowly claw their way back to a narrower margin. 

In the 42nd minute Krim tied the score at 19:19. Soon after that Dinamo were forced to make do without injured centre back Daria Dmitrieva, who had been a constant threat up to that point. 

The last quarter of the match was goal-for-goal and a tense ending was approaching. Marincek was still solid in goal for Krim, as was Anna Sedoykina (16 saves total) for Dinamo.

Scoring almost ground to a standstill in the final minutes after a series of saves and mistakes from both sides. But Krim managed to create a two-goal lead (22:25) nine minutes from full-time with fast counter-attacks. 

Dinamo were pushing for an equaliser, with right back Anna Kochetova (six goals) taking most of the responsibility in attack. Kochetova scored to take the hosts within one goal (24:25) with four minutes remaining, but then misfired twice. 

Kochetova's last attempt for an equalising goal was stopped by Marincek seconds before the buzzer and Krim went on to celebrate a surprise win in Russia.