Hypo Express

The “Hypo Express” seems to be unstoppable as the Austrian champions won all five of their group games so far. The last victory was against runners-up of the previous edition of the Champions League, Lada Togliatti. Hypo NÖ won 35:30 at home; however, it was a tough start against the Russian side...

There were 1,500 fans in a packed arena, but the guests started better. The main reason: Maria Sidorova, who won the gold medal in the world championship just a few days ago, proved her class once again. She was very hard to beat in the opening ten minutes. Lada with their goalkeeper in great form took an early 6:3 lead. But a time-out from Hypo-coach András Németh changed the fortunes: Hypo fought back with their great playmaker, Seong-ok Oh. The goal of Gorica Acimovic gave them the lead in the 24th minute. The Russian squad could never equalise again.

After a 16:14 halftime lead, Hypo even opened a bigger, five-goal gap. Especially Tímea Tóth was prolific and scored her 50th goal in the Champions League with 13 goals against Lada. With this success Hypo will finish on top of the group with all five games won...

"It was a good win for Hypo," said manager Gunnar Prokop after the game. “We had four weeks without players because of the World Championship; it’s good to be back on the winning path."