Thriller in Leipzig: home side reach CL after penalties

Leipzig and Ferencváros fought all the way until penalties in a tense, high tempo final and the "Russian roulette" was won by Leipzig 39:38, who will continue their European campaign in the Group Matches stage of the EHF Champions League, while Ferencváros and third placement game winner Sercodak Dalfsen will join the Cup Winners’ Cup in the third round.

Two former EHF Champions League winners RK Krim Mercator and Hypo Niederösterreich together with Russia's Dinamo-Sinara Volgograd await Leipzig in Group A. The first round is scheduled for 17-18 October.

Qualification Tournament 1 (Leipzig, Germany):
Final:
FTC Rail cargo Hungária (HUN) vs HC Leipzig (GER) 38:39 after extra-time and penalty throws (34:34, 28:28, 15:14)

Goalkeepers dominated the first half of the final, Katja Schülke and Katarina Tomasevic showed they both righfully claim a place in the Group Matches stage. However, Ferencváros took control of the game early on and held on to their 2-3 goal lead until the last minutes of the first half.

Zsuzsanna Tomori, who suffered a minor injury in the semi-final against Dalfsen, led her "Greens" to unstoppable attacks but when the Germans started to keep a closer eye on her Leipzig took over. The home side punished every attacking error with lightning quick counter-attacks, which Ferencváros found hard to keep pace with.

Karolina Kudlacz and Maura Visser kept Ferencváros on a short leash but the Hungarians regained confidence and got grip on the intensive final after Zita Szucsánszki scored a marvellous goal from 12 meters.

It was a tense and surging match both teams had their good and bad periods as they arrived to the last 10 minutes at even score. Schülke was influential but the Germans could not re-take the lead as the breathtakingly thrilling game headed to extra-time after the second half ended at 28:28.

The last drops of fuel were used by both sets of players, Ferencváros went ahead and kept their lead until the very last minute but two errors gave the chance to Kudlacz to draw the teams level two seconds from end and the Polish international fired in an inredible thunderbolt to beat the buzzer.

It seemed this game was never going to end, neither teams missed until the fourth pair of the penalty shootout when Schülke saved the penalty from Ferencváros’s Szarka and Leipzig won the "Russian roulette".  

Third place match:
Sercodak Dalfsen vs BNTU BelAZ Minsk 30:27 (14:15)

Sercodak had been a goal behind BNTU BelAZ Minsk at halftime but managed to turn the tides in the second half and won 30:27. The Dutch champion along with Ferencváros will join the third round of the Cup Winners’ Cup while Minsk set sail in the second round of the competition. Minsk will face Lithuania's ACME-Zalgiris, while Sercodak will take on LK Zug Handball from Switzerland and FTC meet Serbia's ZORK Jagodina.

Photo: Sebastian Brauner