Teams start from scratch in their rematch

The first leg of the Women´s Cup Winners´ Cup Semi-finals was too tight last week to give any serious indication on who will enter the final double-header for the trophy. As there were two very close final scores, this question will be answered only on this Saturday.

Among last four candidates, only Hypo NÖ and Rostov-Don managed to get a place in the final of this competition in the past.

Hypo failed to add Cup Winners´ Cup trophy to their eight Champions League titles in as they were defeated by Ikast Bording in the final of the 2003/04 season.

Rostov-Don played twice in the pre-EHF era of the Cup Winners' Cup final, winning the trophy in 1990 defeating Hungarian Debrecen, and losing the final in 1993 against German side Lützellinden.

Thüringer HC lost the Challenge Cup final in 2009 to Handball Cercle Nimes, while Issy Paris Hand never reached a final in any European club competition.

Hypo NÖ (AUT) vs Thüringer HC (GER)
Saturday 13 April, 18:00 hrs local time
First leg: 32:32

When Hypo built up an eight-goal lead (19:11) in the first 25 minutes of the first game, it seemed that the second leg of this semi-final would be just a formality.

But Thüringer made a great revival in the next minutes as German champions not only successfully caught up with the visitors, but marched ahead by two goals (32:30).

At the end, the game finished at a draw, but the record Austrian champions are still in the driving seats before the re-match in their hall in Maria Enzersdorf.

Hypo NÖ is ready for the return leg of the semi-final, the roles have changed and in coach András Németh´s opinion now his side is the favorite for reaching the finals.

"Despite squandering a big lead in the first half, I´m very pleased with the outcome in Nordhausen. If someone offered us a draw ahead of the match, I´d have signed the paper immediately!" András Németh told eurohandball.com.

The match will be streamed live and for free on ehfTV.com.

Rostov-Don (RUS) vs Issy Paris Hand (FRA)
Saturday 13 April, 17:00 hrs local time
First leg: 22:23

Issy Paris was leading 13:6 after 20 minutes in the first game, but the French team did not manage to get more comfortable win than by one goal difference. Rostov-Don came back later in the second half (five minutes before the end the game was tied at 21:21), and at the end got a good result for a game infront of home fans.

Rostov-Don already reached first final in this season, in Russian league, defeating Lada in the play-off semi-final. They will now face reigning champions Dinamo Volgograd in the repetition of last years’ final.

“I think we have a good result from the first leg and a slight advantage due to home court. But of course, we can’t enter relaxed in the match. We had plenty of time to arrange things and to correct the mistakes from the first game.

"Issy Paris Hand is a team who require our attention for every minute of the game. I'm sure the French team will give all they can since this is their only remaining competition in which they can continue to fight for the trophy,” Rostov-Don goalkeeper Sonja Barjaktarović told eurohandball.com.

Thanks to very good season in Russia, Sonja Barjaktarović, who won the title with Montenegro at 2012 EHF EURO in Serbia, signed a new one year contract with Rostov-Don, and she will stay in Russia next season too.

“We extended our cooperation as there was a mutual satisfaction, so there was no doubt about the continuation of cooperation. I am satisfied with the conditions at the club, my team-mates are really good, they're great to me, I fit in the best way. I had more than enough space to play, lot of strong games, which I needed. These are all good reasons to stay,” Barjaktarović added.

Photo: Mario Gentzel, Herve Loire