Easy quarter-final berth for Buducnost

The third main round match in the Women’s EHF Champions League and a third win for Buducnost Podgorica.



By winning at Krim Ljubljana on Friday evening, the team of head coach Dragan Adzic sealed their qualification for the quarter-finals as first team of Group 1.

This win keeps their unbeaten season (eighth win and one draw) record going.

Following the 2011 Women’s Champions League winner Larvik, they are the second team to clinch a quarter-final berth.

On the other hand, Krim were defeated for the third consecutive time and have only two points to their name – leaving them with quite low chances of making it to the next stage.

GROUP 1

RK Krim Mercator (SLO) vs Buducnost Podgorica (MNE) 20:23 (8:16)

The final result seems to reflect quite a close encounter, but that does definitely not reflect the run-down of a match which was quite one-sided.
A tower for Buducnost was Croatian goalkeeper Marta Zderic, who saved 17 shots.

After a goalless start for both sides, Buducnost easily took advantage of a weak Krim period in attack, extending the gap from 4:3 to 9:3 in the 13th minute.

In the initial stages, Cristina Neagu and winger Radmila Petrovic (both Buducnost top scorers by five goals each) were key in attack, while their defence stood solid throughout.

The Slovenian champions did not find the means in attack to break this wall and mainly scored from penalty shots.

When Neagu netted for the fourth time, the difference rose to seven goals at 12:7 and when Katarina Bulatovic hammered in the last shot of the first half for 16:8 the tie had already been decided.

Having the victory and the qualification for the quarter-finals in their heads the Buducnost players took their foot off the pedal and as a result scored only seven times in the second 30 minutes.

Krim took this chance and showed character to reduce the gap goal by goal, led by French new arrival Allison Pineau.

But even when the game stood at 17:21 with eight minutes left, there was no doubt that Buducnost would leave the court victorious despite Adzic giving playing time to some of his players off the bench.

Zderic stood like a wall topping off her brilliant performance by catching a penalty shot of Tamara Mavsar (Krim’s best scorer by seven goals) with both hands in the 58th minute.

After the match Elizabeth Omoregie commented on Krim's performance: "In first half our game was not really good, but in second we show that our team is strong. We corrected our mistakes from first half and matches before. I hope that our fans are proud of us."

Dragan Adžić spoke after his win: "We took our foot off the gas too early and allowed them to come close. We are satisfied with thirteen points and we can now look on to our match with Dinamo."