ÉRD and Vipers defending narrow leads on foreign courts

ÉRD HC and Vipers Kristiansand are both defending narrow leads going to France and Slovenia, as both sides try to book tickets for the semi-finals of the Women’s Cup Winners’ Cup.

ÉRD have the narrowest lead, as the Hungarian side was only able to defeat Issy Paris Hand 29:28 at home in the first leg.

Therefore, the French team has a very good chance to proceed to the semi-final, when the two teams meet again in France on Saturday night.

Vipers Kristiansand have one goal more to rely on before flying to Ljubljana for their second meeting with RK Krim Mercator on Saturday.

Vipers won the first match 29:27 in Norway in former Norwegian international Kristine Lunde Borgesen’s first match as temporary head coach.

However, two goals is not a big lead for the Kristiansand team prior to the trip to the Slovenian capital.

“We could have won by more in the first match, and even though I was happy with the win, it annoyed me a little that we did not,” the Norwegian international Marta Tomac from Vipers told her club’s website.

While the first leg ties were tight in Hungary and Norway, there seems to be little if any doubt about the outcome of the Russian tie between Handball Club Lada and Zvezda Zvenigorod.

Lada won the first match away as big as 43:30, and this result makes the return match in Togliatti on Saturday afternoon look almost like a formality.

It may not look like a formality, when Team Tvis Holstebro make the short drive to Viborg Monday evening for the second leg of the all Danish tie against Viborg HK.

However, with an 11-goal lead from their 25:14 win at home in the first leg, Holstebro are obvious favourites to clinch the semi-final berth.

Anyway, Viborg will need to perform considerably better in attack than they did in the first match - if they are going to have a chance to proceed.