25.02.2008, 10:09
Easy Viborg win in Danish encounter

"I think we might also have lost this match with our strongest line-up,” commented Anja Andersen after the game.

Easy Viborg win in Danish encounter

Slagelse DT are the only Danish team that have been able to defeat Viborg HK this season. In a league game back in January Slagelse won 30-28 in Viborg. That result was never even near as Denmark’s two participants in the Women’s Champions League met in Slagelse on Saturday. In front of 1,122 spectators in Antvorskovhallen, Viborg got an easy 22-12 win against Slagelse weakened by injuries. Some of the fit key players were even kept on the bench by head coach Anja Andersen for the entire 60 minutes.

Viborg managed to win without one of their greatest stars, Bojana Popovic. The Montenegrin backcourt player had a minor knee injury, but she could have played. However, head coach Tomas Ryde decided to use Popovic only if it was necessary, which was not the case.

Though Viborg started slowly in attack, they had no problems scoring enough goals to get a big victory and at the other end of the court, Slagelse – almost without backcourt players once again – had enormous troubles against the strong Viborg defence.

Early decision

It took 15 minutes and 6 seconds for Mette Melgaard to score Slagelse’s first goal. At that point Viborg were already leading by 6-0 and the match was almost decided by then.

During the rest of the first half, Slagelse managed to score more frequently, but still they were not able to reduce the distance and Viborg were up 12-7 at half time.

As the second half progressed, the Viborg dominance was even more apparent and things were going even worse for Slagelse as their goalkeeper, Carina Friis was injured. She has done a great job so far, but had to leave the court. As Cecilie Leganger was still unavailable, Anja Andersen had no other goalkeeper than a field player, Tatjana Bennedsen. The young player had had to guard the Slagelse goal for the last ten minutes of the match.

One goal in 23 minutes

At the same time, Slagelse’s problems continued in attack as Viborg did not lay back in defence. The home team only managed to score a single goal in the first 23 minutes of the second half. At that point Viborg were leading by 20-8 and people in Antvorskovhallen were wondering whether if Slagelse would even reach 10 goals in the match.

They did, as they managed to reduce the gap to 20-10 with two goals in succession, but Viborg answered back in a hurry making it 21-10 and 22-11 before finally winning 22-12.

“I try to make use of my roster in the best possible way and I think that we might also have lost this match with our strongest formation,” Slagelse coach Anja Andersen said after her team’s third big defeat in the Main Round.

“It was quite a challenge for us to stay so far back in our defence,” said Viborg’s top scorer Rikke Skov. “During the entire match it was important for us not to open up our defence even a little bit and give space for Slagelse’s line players who were the most dangerous. I would not describe this match as a training session, but anyway it was good four us to get an opportunity to practice this part of our game,” Skov added.

Viborg second

Rikke Skov scored 8 goals for Viborg, while Mette Melgaard was the top scorer of the home team with 3 goals.

Viborg are now second in Group 2 with 4 points after three matches, 2 points behind Hypo Niederösterreich who will be visiting Viborg Stadionhal on Saturday.

For Slagelse the defeat was almost a goodbye to the Champions League this season. Anja Andersen’s team are last in the group without a point and with a goal difference of minus 35…

TEXT: Peter Bruun