Vardar back in the hunt after beating Leipzig

Vardar produced arguably their best performance of the season in Europe’s premier club competition by steamrolling the last quarter of the game as they celebrated a lifeline victory against Leipzig.

The result allowed the home side to leapfrog the visitors in the standings and get their Women's EHF Champions League campaign back on track as the race for the quarter-finals is shaping up to be a titanic four-way tussle.

Vardar are third in the standings with seven points from four games, one ahead of Thüringer and Leipzig and three behind second-placed Russian side Dinamo-Sinara, who will visit already qualified pacesetters Buducnost on Sunday.   

GROUP 1

WHC Vardar SCBT (MKD) vs HC Leipzig (GER) 26:20 (10:9)

Stung by Leipzig’s compatriots Thüringer HC in the previous round, Vardar bounced back in style with an impressive display of grim determination to stay on course for a berth to the Women's EHF Champions League knockout stage.

Needing a win to avoid skating on precariously thin ice in the last two rounds, Vardar showed their full potential in a rampant last 15 minutes as they went on a 7:0 run which turned a slim one-goal advantage into a whopping 24:16 lead in the closing stages.

It was not all plain sailing for the home side in a rugged and physical first half, with Leipzig nosing ahead 7:6 after trailing 3:1 thanks to some aggressive defending which forced many Vardar passes to go astray and disrupted their normally free-flowing attack.

With centre back Julija Nikolic, German line player Anja Althaus and Russian Alena Ikhneva being instrumental in turning the tide, Vardar were back in front 15:12 before another dip enabled the visitors to cut the deficit to 17:16 midway through the second half.

But after Inna Suslina saved a penalty and the resultant rebound from the competition’s top scorer Karolina Kudlacz as Vardar were three goals up (19:16), the Macedonian giants ran riot and brushed the German outfit aside in front of a passionate home crowd.

Althaus was unstoppable on the line while Nikolic, Ikhneva and Croatian left back Andrea Penezic provided the backcourt ammunition which Leipzig could not repel when it mattered most.

Althaus was top scorer with six goals, Ikhneva and Nikolic scored five each and Penezic chipped in with four for Vardar, who found the right mix and balance in attack.

Kudlacz and Saskia Lang netted six and four goals respectively for Leipzig.