Thüringer and Vardar edge closer to Budapest

The Women’s EHF Champions League Main Round reached the halfway mark in Group 1 after a pair of enthralling contests on Saturday, with Vardar and Thüringer edging closer to the May 3-4 Women's EHF FINAL4 in Budapest after beating their respective opponents in contrasting fashion.

An expensively assembled Vardar outfit staged an amazing second-half comeback against Midtjylland in front of a fervent home crowd in Skopje, while Thüringer eased to a comfortable home win against Sweden’s Savehof.

Sunday offers another two vastly entertaining fixtures in Group 2, with holders Györ at home to Krim Mercator and 2012 winners Buducnost taking on 2011 champions Larvik in Podgorica’s vibrant Moraca Hall.

Group 1

WHC Vardar SCBT (MKD) vs FC Midtjylland (DEN) 24:23 (10:12)

Individual quality makes all the difference when it produces selfless teamwork and this trait helped hot favourites Vardar stage a magical comeback in a truly epic clash against Midtjylland, who will be kicking themselves for squandering a great opportunity to stun their rivals.

The expensively assembled Macedonian outfit failed to act as a sum of its parts for long spells and trailed by five goals early in the second half, but then turned on the heat to engineer a 14:6 run and lead 24:21 in the dying minutes.

Defiant Midtjylland cut the deficit to just one goal but their final salvo came too late as they also missed half a chance to equalise on the buzzer, when Vardar goalkeeper Irina Suslova kept out a stinging free throw which went around the wall.

Vardar were completely at sea in the first half as Midtjylland’s 5-1 defence totally subdued the home team’s playmaker Andrea Lekic, while Sabine Englert saved three penalty shots to silence the vociferous home crowd.

Montenegro right wing Jovanka Radicevic kept the home side afloat with four goals in the opening period, but Vardar seemed doomed to their first defeat of the campaign as the Jorgensen girls, Line and Stine, fired on all cylinders at the other end.

The game also appeared to be out of the home team’s reach after Stine Jorgensen made it 18:14 midway through the second half before Vardar’s line player Ana Djokic stole the show and started piercing through Midtjylland’s ranks almost at will.

The rejuvenated Lekic kept feeding the quick and nimble pivot with trademark pin-point passes through the middle as Alison Pineau and Tatiana Khmyrova also found their range, ripping Midtjylland’s defence to shreds in the last quarter of the game.

The defeat will have come as a bitter blow for the Danish side after they suffered an identical fate at Thüringer last weekend, having lost in a frantic finish after they threw away a six-goal lead in the second half.

It also means they now face a mammoth task of breaking into the top two in the group, as Vardar stayed top with five points from three games ahead of Thuringer on four.

Djokic was the game’s top scorer with six goals as Radicevic and Khmyrova chipped in with four apiece, while the Jorgensen duo netted five each for Midtjylland.  

Thüringer HC (GER) vs IK Sävehof (SWE) 30:25 (16:13)

A strong start to the game paved the way for German champions Thüringer to celebrate what could turn out to be a vital five-goal win over Swedish rivals Sävehof midway through the main round.

The result left Thüringer second in the group with four points from three games, two points more than Midtjylland and three ahead of Sävehof who now face an uphill task to keep alive their hopes of a top-two finish.

Backed by their passionate fans in the Nordhausen Arena, Thüringer raced into a 6:2 lead as playmaker Alexandrina Cabral Barbosa scored three goals in the early stages of the contest.

The advantage swelled to 14:7 with Sonja Frey and Svenja Huber joining the free-scoring party, as Iveta Luzumova and Nadja Nadgornaya also excelled to carry the momentum for the rampant home team.

However, Sävehof refused to roll over and having cut the deficit to three goals by halftime, they reduced it to just one (16:15) early in the second half. Thüringer then moved up a gear and there was no way back for the visitors after Luzumova scored twice in a row to stifle the visitors.

Barbosa and Huber finished the game as Thüringer’s top scorers with six goals each, while Nadgornaja and Luyumova added five apiece. Prolific left back Jenny Alm again shone for Sävehof and capped yet another brilliant individual performance with a game-high eight goals, with Ida Oden and Jamina Roberts netting four each.