Great goalkeeping not enough to save Krim at Leipzig

German side HC Leipzig got their first victory in this season's European campaign in front of a home crowd on Sunday afternoon. Leipzig capitalised on Krim's sub-par attacking and grabbed a solid win, despite an excellent performance by both of the visiting goalkeepers.

Women’s EHF Champions League Group A

HC Leipzig (GER) vs Krim Mercator (SLO) 30:24 (17:11)

Leipzig started well, storming into a two-goal lead, but the visitors, helped by Sergeja Stefanisin (seven saves in the first half) bounced back to a 6:5 lead after a 3:0 run.

Leipzig tightened their 6-0 zone in defence and then the troubles started for Krim. The Germans managed to completely neutralise Mirjeta Bajramoska (two goals), who was Krim's best scorer in the opening match, while the rest of the backs lost a number of balls. After a successful offensive in the last 10 minutes of the first half, Leipzig widened the margin to six goals, 17:11.

After a three-goal run for Krim in the opening minutes of the 2nd half coach Rentsch called a time-out and Leipzig responded with a 5:0 partial score and stretched the lead to 22:14.

Krim managed to close the gap to 22:18 but failed to threaten the hosts further. Misa Marincek was excellent in goal (14 saves total), but her teammates caused too many technical errors and Leipzig kept piling on the easy goals.

After Krim failed to capitalise on a saved penalty by Marinček and Leizig made it 26:20 with five minutes left on the clock, the result was no longer in doubt. Karolina Kudlacz was again the top scorer for the hosts with eight goals, while Alja Koren scored seven for Krim.

Leipzig have now tied Krim at two points and will host Hypo in the next round, while Krim visit Dinamo-Sinara in Volgograd.