Hypo strike back against Byasen

Last season, Hypo Niederösterriech were sent out of the Women’s Cup Winners’ Cup with a clear margin by Byasen Trondheim.

This season, the Austrian record champions and former Women’s EHF Champions League winners turned the tables in the quarter-finals.

A win was already on the cards after the first leg in Norway, which Hypo Niederösterreich won 24:23, and in the return match Hypo managed to finish the job thanks to a 28:20 win.

Fleury Loiret Handball will be waiting for Hypo in the semi-finals. In a double-header this weekend, the French team received Zvezda Zvenigorod, and the host team made things more or less clear in the first leg Friday, which Fleury won 28:19.

In Sunday’s second match, the French women were never close to losing their big lead from Friday. Going 13:11 up at half-time, Fleury could take things a bit easier after the break, and the 25:25 result was more than enough for them.

The second leg between FC Midtjylland and MKS Selgros Lublin looked like a formality, after Midtjylland had won the first leg in Poland by ten goals, 35:25.

In front of 1,602 spectators in the Ikast Brande Arena, the number two in the Danish league had no problems either, winning 30:18 this time.

The match was only equal in the first minutes, where Lublin managed to follow the hosts to 3:3.

“Lublin is an okay team, and when we do not exactly open the match brilliantly, but we still have 3:3, we can live with that. We ended up by winning by 12 and could make substitutions as we please all the way through,” FC Midtjylland coach Helle Thomsen told her club’s website.

FC Midtjylland’s semi-final opponent will be FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria, who brought a nine-goal advantage with them to Germany this weekend, having won 34:25 at home against HSG Blomberg-Lippe last weekend.

With this big lead in their luggage, the 33:33 draw in Blomberg was more than enough for the Hungarian team, who were behind several times in the match but never by more than four goals.

“We played a great game, and it was a pity that it was not enough to win. We could have been smarter, as we were leading by four goals, but in spite of this, it was the highlight of our season, HSG coach André Fuhr told his club’s official website.