12 Hagman goals as Holstebro run over Hypo

Hypo Niederösterreich were forced out of the Women’s EHF Champions League after the group phase this season. Now, the Austrian record champions are close to being ousted from the Cup Winners’ Cup as well. The 42:28 away defeat they suffered on Sunday, against last season’s EHF Cup winners Team Tvis Holstebro, will be an extremely difficult difference to overcome in their home game this coming Saturday.

Right back Nathalie Hagman played an important part in the decisive Danish win. The 24-year-old Swedish international scored 12 goals for her team, who led 21:12 at half-time.

“We missed too many opportunities and made too many technical mistakes at the start, but we managed to create the distance there should be between us and Hypo before half-time,” Holstebro coach Peter Krautmeyer told his club’s website after the big win.

In the previous round Ardesen GSK put on one of the most remarkable performances as they sent top Danish side Team Esbjerg out of the competition with a clear 31:22 win at home.

This weekend however, it was the Turkish side’s turn to suffer a big defeat, as they lost no less than 49:28 away to Russia’s Handball Club Lada. This result virtually sends Lada to the quarter-final and shows that Ardesen will likely face a big challenge in the second-leg match.

Vipers Kristiansand took a major step towards the quarter-finals, with the Norwegian side winning 28:22 at home against MSK Selgros Lublin from Poland. 1247 spectators saw Kristiansand leading 15:13 at half-time, and as the last 30 minutes progressed, the home team increased the distance to a substantial advantage. Kristiansand will travel to Poland for the second leg on Saturday.

Things are considerably less clear ahead of the meetings between Romanian SC Municipal Craiova and RK Krim Mercator from Slovenia.

Craiova won the first leg at home as narrowly as 30:29, which means that Krim, who had to leave the EHF Champions League this season after the group phase, still have a very good chance for the overall win when the two teams meet again on Saturday in Ljubljana.