Lada defeat has no repercussions

It meant nothing to Lada Togliatti that they lost their last match in Women’s Champions League Group C 29:28 away to Norwegian champions Larvik HK. Even before the final match, the Russians were sure to qualify for the main round – and just as sure not to be able to reach the first place in the group, which Austrian champions Hypo Niederösterreich had secured already with six wins out of six.

For Larvik, the match was also only about the honour. The fact that Macedonian champions Kometal Petrov from Skopje had lost 34:24 to Hypo already Friday meant that coach Karl-Erik Böhn and his girls were sure to finish third in the group and thereby proceed to the Cup Winners’ Cup. In case of a defeat to Lada, Larvik would finish the group with two points just as Kometal, but Larvik are one goal better the Macedonians in the internal matches. However, there was no need for any such calculations, as Larvik removed any doubt by winning their last group match.

Close match in Bergslihallen

The match in Bergslihallen in Larvik became a close affair, in which Lada got the better start and were leading for the first 27 minutes, at times up to three goals ahead. A strong finish to the first half by the home team, however, changed the scored into a 16:14 lead for Larvik.

From the start of the second half Lada were back in the lead – leading by three goals again at 19:22. However, the Norwegians managed to fight themselves back into the game once again, and shortly before the end the scored was equal, 28:28, and after Larvik keeper Ingrid Ødegaard had saved a Russian 7 meter shot, her team-mate Mari Dövle managed to score the winning goal at the other end of the court.

“This was a match we could build something on. We proved that we could stay focused and control our nerves at the end!”, one of Larvik’s Norwegian internationals Linn-Kristin Riegelhuth said after the win.