Hypo in the main round

Group B:

Metz Handball – Aalborg DH 23:18 (10:8)

Hypo Niederösterreich – Krim Ljubljana 28:26 (13:9)

Hypo Niederösterreich took their last chance and qualified as second in group B for the main round of the Women’s Champions League by beating Krim Ljubljana 28:26. With six points in the end the Austrians are one point ahead of Metz in the final ranking of the group phase in group B. Krim was defeated for the first time in this season, but was known as the group winner before this match. For Metz the 23:18 (10:8) against Aalborg wasn’t enough to reach the next stage of the CL – the French champion will go on in the cupwinners cup as third in their group now.

Metz started the high tensioned last match day of group B on Friday evening – and the French did all they had to keep the tension high. They kept Aalborg under control for the whole 60 minutes – and took both points well deserved, even as they missed a lot of chances to beat the Danes much clearer. Best scorer for Metz in front of 4300 spectators was Kysucanova with five goals, Seglem scored five goals for Aalborg. Best player for the Danes was goalkeeper Vojcic with 18 saves. At 20.35 on Friday evening Metz was qualified for the main round, as they were one point ahead of Hypo, which had just started their match against Krim. By knowing the Metz result and considering that they had lost the direct encounter against the French, Hypo knew that they had to beat Krim. And the Austrian CL record winner (eight titles) took the lead quite early – and didn’t give it from their hands in the first half. In the end they celebrated this victory against before unbeaten Krim and secured their place in the CL main round like the Slovenians. Matchwinner was Hypo was outstanding goalkeeper Olga Saenko.