FCK: two teams in the CL

On the same day that FCK Håndbold made their debut in the EHF Men’s Champions League with a 34-25 away win against Serbian champions Crvena Zvezda, the club’s women’s team also qualified for the Champions League. FCK won their third game in Group 4 of QT 2 on Sunday.

The qualification group did not sound easy with Dunaferr NK from Hungary, HC Motor Zaporozhye from the Ukraine and HC Naisa-Nis from Serbia.

Dunaferr NK and HC Motor Zaporozhye began the tournament in Frederiksberg Opvisningshal on Friday, and after an equal first half the Ukrainian champions managed to decide the game in their favour. Motor won 36-31.

After this match, the host FCK Håndbold met HC Naisa-Nis and the Serbian team did not have a chance against the stars of head coach Anja Andersen. The home team were leading 20-8 already at half time and the 251 spectators saw the home team increase this lead to 27-12 early after the break. The game finally ended 33-17 for FCK.

On Saturday Nis and Dunaferr made a clear 28-20 for Dunaferr. The Hungarians were already leading by 18-7 at half time.

After this match the host FCK faced HC Motor Zaporozhye and after an equal first half (15-13 for FCK), the Danes really started to make the difference after the break. They surprised the fans with a comfortable 38-17 victory.

Decision between FCK and Dunaferr

Sunday started with a 29-26 win for Nis against Zaporozhye. Accordingly, the first place was a matter between FCK and Dunaferr that met in the last game of the tournament. FCK could have qualified already with a draw, while the Hungarians needed a win.

FCK got 5-1 ahead, but Dunaferr managed to reduce the gap to one goal at 6-5. There were no more questions after this as FCK – thanks to Cecilie Leganger in the goal mainly –were up 12-7 at half time.

In the second half, the 600 fans saw that FCK steadily increased their lead to 18-11 and 21-13 before finally winning 22-15.

In the group stage FCK will meet last season’s finalists Hypo Niederösterreich, Orsan Elda Prestigio from Spain and the Montenegrin champion Budocnost T-Mobile.

This year three Danish teams, Ikast/Brande, Viborg and FCK will represent the country in the CL and this is one more than last year when Aalborg DH stumbled in the last qualification round.