Thüringer rout Podravka to seal main round berth 

Thüringer HC advanced to the knockout rounds of the Women’s EHF Champions League with a match to spare after easing to victory at Podravka Vegeta, who can no longer qualify from Group B.

Any faint hopes the Croatian side of had of reaching the main round before the game were soon extinguished as a rock solid German champions established a commanding lead in the early stages.

The hosts could not hit back and were condemned to a fifth straight defeat while the visitors bounced back from three consecutives losses in emphatic style. 

GROUP B

It was always going to be difficult for a revamped Podravka Vegeta to overturn the 13-goal deficit from the reverse fixture, which ended 33:20 in Nordhausen last month.

But a promising start from the hosts instilled belief among the home fans that they could at least hope for their first points of the campaign.

With the score at 4:4 early on, Thüringer moved up a gear however, and swept away their rivals in a one-sided first half as Danick Snelder, Svenja Huber and Nadja Nadgornaja ran the show and scored almost at will.

Serbian right back Jelena Zivkovic tried to keep Podravka afloat with a valiant solo effort as she scored six of her team’s eight goals in the first half, but her heroics were not enough to hold the floodgates at the other end.

Snelder netted five first half scores, Huber added four and Katrin Engel chipped in with three.

A thrashing was on the cards when Thüringer’s lead soared to 18:10 early in the second half, with left back Nadgornaja almost ripping the net several times with thunderbolts from the nine-metre line. 

But Podravka produced yet another strong second half performance to salvage some pride.

As in their previous two home defeats, against Buducnost and WHC Vardar SCBT, the Croatian unit looked a different team in the last 20 minutes and went down fighting in front of a loyal home crowd. 

A flurry of fast breaks reduced the deficit to just four goals with five minutes to play (29:25), but the unstoppable Nadgornaja drilled in two more long-range efforts to take her tally to eight and keep Thüringer firmly in control.

Zivkovic was the game’s top scorer with nine goals, seven of them from the penalty line, while Miranda Tatari added six for Podravka. 

Nadgornaja received great support from her teammates as Engel scored seven, Snelder poured in six and Huber added five.