Surprises at the start of the Women’s CL: Hypo lose in Debrecen, Leipzig win in Itxako and Popovic scores eleven times for Podgorica.
Valcea shocked in Randers
Group A:
Buducnost Podgorica – Dinamo Wolgograd 29:22 (15:14)
Great international debut for Bojana Popovic in Podgorica: By scoring eleven goals she was the match winner for the Montenegrinians aside the ten times scorer Radicevic against the Russian Champion from Volgograd. After the first half was quite close Buducnost improved and accelerated after the break – and took a clear opening victory in the CL.
Group B:
DVSC Korvex Debrecen – Hypo Niederösterreich 22:21 (13:7)
Qualificant Debrecen was celebrated by 3500 spectators after this thrilling victory against CL record winner Hypo. The Hungarians were clearly dominant in the first half and lead 10:4 and 13:7 at the break. But Hypo-NÖ fought hard, equalized at the score of 18:18 in minute 48. Two minutes before the end, the teams were level at 21:21. Then Debrecen scored, Hypo-NÖ missed, and the local team celebrated its first CL victory. Top scorer for Hypo was do Nascimento with eight goals, three DVSC players scored each four times.
Itxako SD – HC Leipzig 23:24 (12:14)
By playing highly disciplined and thanks to their strong defense the German took two unexpected points from Spain. The match was on absolute eye-level for 60 minutes. After the 7:7 (minute 21) Leipzig was in lead at the break, but then Itxako again equalized. In the second half the lead changed constantly, but thanks to their top scorer Karolina Kudlacz (ten goals in total) the Germans had the better end despite the fact that they had to play the last 30 second with two players less on the field. Fernandez, Barbosa and Pena each scored four times for the Spanish Champion.
Group C:
Randers HK – Oltchim Valcea 27:23 (14:12)
Debutant beats last season’s finalist: The victory of Randers HK in the very first match of this Women’s CL was a real surprise. Even as newcomer Anna-Sophie Okkels was injured very early the Danes played outstanding against the favoured team from Romania which showed a disappointing performance. The Romanians had their best period right before the break when they reduced the gap from 7:14 to 12:14. But it took only ten minutes for the pre-decision as Randers again went away to 23:16. Nina Wörz decided the game with the 26:19 in minute 55. Top scorers were Camilla Dalby with ten goals for Randers and Roxana Han with eight goals for Valcea.
TEXT:
Björn Pazen