Eighth-placed Kastamonu Belediyesi GSK fought extremely hard at home in their group B match against CSKA, but the Russian team ultimately carved out a 31:29 victory.
GROUP B
Kastamonu Belediyesi GSK (TUR) vs CSKA (RUS) 29:31 (15:18)
- goals from Elena Mikhaylichenko and saves by Polina Kaplina propelled CSKA to a six-goal lead (13:7) in the 22nd minute
- however, Kastamonu refused to give up and cut the deficit to three goals at the interval, and later to just one goal, 18:17
- the Russian side again pulled clear to lead 26:20, but a string of Marina Rajcic saves helped the home team to draw level at 28:28 with five minutes to go
- yet CSKA held their nerve to claim the two points, which helped them to leapfrog Odense and climb to fourth place with 14 points
- Kastamonu's Jovanka Radicevic scored nine goals to finish as the top scorer of the game, while Elena Mikhaylichenko and Kathrine Heindahl netted six times each for CSKA
Again no points for Kastamonu
Playing against participants in last season's DELO EHF FINAL4, Kastamonu did not give up throughout the game and deserve credit for their brave performance.
However, the Turkish team ultimately suffered their 13th straight defeat in the competition. Now they have only one chance left to claim points in their maiden season at this level — away at Odense in round 14. However, it will be a difficult task.
They (CSKA) had also a very good defence in the first half, but we made our defence better than them in the second half by seeing 13 scores in our own goal. We were so close to the win and we even got the tie in the last five minutes, but unfortunately we lost the game.
