Larvik defeat Györ to win Group 2

Even with two match days left in the main round of the Women's EHF Champions League, Larvik are already guaranteed to win Group 2 after Larvik defeated Györi Audi ETO 21:19 in a full Arena Larvik Saturday evening.
 
GROUP 2


Larvik (NOR) vs Györi Audi ETO KC (HUN) 21:19 (12:9)

With two rounds left in the main round in the Women’s EHF Champions League, Larvik are already sure to win Group 2 after their 21:19 win against Györ in a packed Arena Larvik.

In spite of missing their first three penalty shots, Györ were leading and held the initiative for the first 20 minutes of the match, leading by one goal.

The momentum changed hands as Gro Hammerseng-Edin gave Larvik their first lead at 8:7 with seven and a half minutes left in the first half.

Less than one minute later, Anja Hammerseng-Edin increased their lead to 9:7.

That was the start of Larvik’s dominance for the rest of the first half, and the lead was increased to three goals at 11:8 and 12:9 at half-time.

Heidi Loke was ill during the week leading up the match, but the Norwegian line player’s possible weakness was not to blame for Györ’s huge attacking problems – attacking problems which meant that it took the visitors nearly ten minutes to score their first goal in the second half reducing the deficit to 14:10.

One player who added to Györ’s scoring problems was Sandra Toft.

The Danish keeper in the Larvik goal performed extremely well, but so did the Norwegian goalkeeper for Györ, Kari Aalvik Grimsbo, and with two strong defences in front of them, the two keepers contributed to limiting the score in the match.

However, Larvik were the better team and went six goals ahead. The visitors managed to reduce the gap to two goals towards the end, but this late rally was too little too late to threaten Larvik's victory.