Dinamo-Sinara close in on quarter-finals with win in Germany 

Dinamo-Sinara have one foot in the Women's EHF Champions League Quarter-finals after a 33:30 win against Thüringer HC in the Wiedigsburghalle of Nordhausen on Sunday.

Only briefly did the German champions manage to threaten their Russian opponents, and Thüringer now face an uphill task if they are to advance from Group 1.

Buducnost, winners of the Women´s EHF Champions League three years ago, are extremely close the quarter-finals after their 28:21 win at home against HC Leipzig.

Despite the defeat, Leipzig are still in a good position to also reach the quarter-finals, though.

GROUP 1

Thüringer HC (GER) vs Dinamo-Sinara (RUS) 30:33 (13:14)

Dinamo got off to a strong start and it only took three minutes and 41 seconds for THC coach Herbert Müller to deem it necessary to use his first timeout.

At that point, his team were already 4:1 down and his stoppage did not make an immediate impact. In fact, Dinamo increased their lead to 6:2 and maintained a four-goal cushion for the following 10 minutes before man-to-man defence applied to the Russian side’s playmaker, Daria Dmitrieva, began to stifle them.

By the halfway stage the hosts had cut the deficit to a single goal and Katrin Engel equalised 19 seconds after the restart – before the German club gained their first lead at 18:17, three-and-a-half minutes into the period, behind Nadja Nadgronaja and some strong fast breaks.

That lead did not last long, however.

Thüringer attempted to combat man-to-man defence on Nadgornaja by playing seven against six, but this ploy backfired and Dinamo raced to another four-goal advantage.

Müller's side never managed to catch up again, and after Dinamo extended the lead to five, the visitors saw out the final minutes to return home with an important three-goal victory, which keeps them in second spot in Group 1.

Thüringer meanwhile missed the chance to climb into the top four and boost their quarter-final hopes.

Buducnost (MNE) vs HC Leipzig (GER) 28:21 (16:7)

There was never much doubt about the result in the S. C. Moraca Sunday evening. Buducnost were simply too superior for that to happen.

After Leipzig scored the first goal of the match, Buducnost soon took control and cruised to a 5:1 lead which caused Leipzig to their first timeout already after eight and a half minute.

Still, the home team went on making the gap bigger, increasing their lead to 7:1 and 11:4 within the first 18 minutes, and only a bit of lack of concentration with the shots and a good performances by Katja Schülke in the Leipzig were the reasons why Buducnost were not leading even bigger already at this stage.

The hosts were focused enough to maintain their big lead for the rest of the first half and even increase it further, so they could take a nine goal lead with the in the locker room.

The Buducnost dominance continued in the second half, where the hosts increased their lead to 24:13 and 25:14, but as Buducnost coach Dragan Adzic sent on some of his substitutes at the end, Leipzig were allowed to put a little cosmetics on the result towards the final buzzer.

Cristina Neagu scored seven goals for Buducnost, same number as Karolina Kudlacz reached for the visitors.