GROUP A

BV Borussia 09 Dortmund (GER) vs HC Podravka Vegeta (CRO) 38:14 (16:8)

• centre back Alina Grijseels returned to her early season form and jumped to first place in the leading goal scorer standings with 53 goals
• Dortmund topped their previous record for largest-ever win in the DELO EHF Champions League, an eight-goal drubbing of Odense, in February 2021
• the German champions also set a new record for the highest number of goals scored in a game, topping their previous performance, set against Brest in February 2021, by five goals
• Podravka’s new coach, Goran Mrdjen who was appointed this week, could not avoid his team’s fifth loss in a row
• after a strong start to the season, Podravka fell back to their old ways, as they have won only 11 of their last 64 matches in Europe’s premier competition
• Podravka are now seventh in the standings, four points behind CSM Bucuresti, who are currently sixth

Grijseels scores more goals than Podravka

There were questions marks for Dortmund before the game against Podravka, as they had lost their previous two matches and fell to sixth place in the standings. But this was undoubtedly their best all-around performance in the competition, despite also earning wins against powerful sides in the past two seasons.

Everything worked like clockwork for the German side, who had goalkeeper Madita Kohorst in superb form. She saved 19 shots, while centre back Alina Grijseels had her best-ever outing in the competition, scoring 15 times, one goal more than the entire Podravka team. Podravka were handed their biggest-ever loss in 158 matches played in the DELO EHF Champions League, topping the 20-goal drubbing against Gyor, 37:17, in February 2018.