 Preview of the Women’s EHF Champions League Final first leg
The first of two games to decide the best women’s club team in Europe is about to take place. Although the Women’s EHF Champions League Final is a special event for both sets of players, it marks an extra special return to the court for one Larvik player.
After being out of action for two years and no less than six knee operations, Nora Mørk is back on the handball court at the best possible time, for herself and for her club.
The 22-year-old right back, who can also play in other positions, celebrated her comeback already this week by scoring four goals, as Larvik won 40:20 away against Tertnes in the semi-final of the Norwegian play-offs.
“I have always been told that things would turn out well and I have kept being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If I had not, I would never have made it,” Nora Mørk, who is seen as a joker in Larvik’s pack against Györ, told Norwegian TV2.
Larvik and Györ can look back at very recent internal meetings, as they were in the same group in the Main Round this season. On those occasions Györ took two clear wins, 24:18 in Larvik and 30:24 at home.
Nevertheless, Larvik, who took the title in 2011 in their only Champions League final so far, still believe in their chances to repeat the triumph from two years ago.
“Actually, we managed to hang on to them very well most of the time in both Main Round matches, but there were some periods in both matches, where we fell out of the game.
“If we can eliminate those periods in the finals, we have a good chance of repeating our triumph from 2011,” Larvik´s sports director Tor Advar Moen told ehfCL.com.
The finals will also mean yet another reunion between old friends, as the Norwegian internationals Katrine Lunde Haraldsen and Heidi Løke both play for Györ.
For Løke and Larvik playmaker Anja Edin, the occasion will be extra special, as those two have been friends since childhood, and already as kids they talked about meeting in a final one day.
“It is cool that we are finally in a final together, even though it is in opposite teams, but when the match starts, the competitive instincts will take over,” Edin told Larvik´s website.
While Larvik have only been in the Champions League final once before – in 2011 when the defeated Spanish Itxako De Navarra – Györ are in their third final, but still chasing the triumph.
In 2009 they were defeated by Danish side Viborg HK, and last year Buducnost from Montenegro got in their way.
The first leg of the final tie takes place on Sunday, 5 May at 16.45 CET in the sold out Arena Larvik and will be live on ehfTV.com.
TEXT: Peter Bruun / cor
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