Leipzig overcome shaky start to book clear win
Leipzig overcome shaky start to book clear win
For 40 minutes, Muratpasa Belediyesi SK were heading for an away win against HC Leipzig in their first match of the Women’s EHF Cup Last 16 on Sunday.
But the German team turned the tables to win the first-leg game 33:26. It was not until the middle of the second half that the hosts first grabbed the lead, at 23:22. From then on, Leipzig left no doubt in front of the 2478 spectators in the Arena Leipzig.
Another German team, TuS Metzingen, also kept their chance of a quarter-final berth alive. In front of 1770 spectators, they put on a second-half comeback to win at home against Slovakian IUVENTA Michalovce.
The visitors were leading 19:16 at half-time, but Metzingen kept their score to seven in the second half to hold a 30:26 advantage at the final whistle.
Danish Silkeborg-Voel KFUM are debutants on the European stage this season, but they do not act like beginners. After eliminating Switzerland’s SPONO Eagles clearly in Round 3, they took a step towards toward the quarter-finals this weekend with a 26:22 win in Sweden against H 65 Höörs Handbollsklubb.
The visitors were leading 13:10 at half-time and held an eight-goal advantage early in the second half. Silkeborg coach Jakob Andreasen was therefore not completely content with the comparatively narrow final score line.
“I am happy about the win, but it was not okay that we let them into the game when we were leading by eight,” Andreasen told Silkeborg-Voel’s website.
“We were probably influenced by their man-to-man defence on several of our players.”
Before the first match away against Tertnes Bergen, HC Odense coach Flemming Larsen was content with a draw. He got more than that however, as his team won the match in Norway’s second largest city 22:21.
The Danish win could even have been much bigger, as Odense were leading 16:10 at half-time and 19:10 at the start of the second half, before the hosts began to catch up.
With 10 goals, left back Line Haugsted made an important contribution to the Odense win.
Last spring, Dinamo-Sinara played in the Women’s EHF FINAL4, but this season, the Russian club may have trouble reaching the quarter-final in the EHF Cup.
This weekend, they lost the first leg of the all-Russian match against Astrakhanochka 31:26 on away ground. 3500 spectators in Astrakhan saw the home team increase a half time lead of two-goals, 18:16, to a five-goal win at the final whistle.
