04.03.2014, 04:26
Unbeaten Györ head to Budapest

FEATURE: The defending champion’s win in Ljubljana on Saturday booked their place at the Women’s EHF FINAL4 in May. And head coach Ambros Martin thinks this is well deserved.

Unbeaten Györ head to Budapest

Györi Audi ETO KC fulfilled their much anticipated mission to qualify for the Women’s EHF FINAL4 by beating Krim Ljubljana on Saturday.

Their place is booked with two games in hand and winning the group, which includes four former winners of the Women’s EHF Champions League, is also one albeit huge step away from the defending champions.

"It’s comforting to know we have reached our primary goal by booking our place in the FINAL4," head coach Ambros Martin told ehfcl.com.

"We didn’t celebrate too much, though, as we have two more games to play and there’s still a lot of room to improve. A fair amount of things have changed since our last campaign that ended with lifting the trophy Györ had been chasing for such a long time."

Less goals scored, more conceded

Last season Györ stormed through opponents, defended massively, scored loads of goals and generally looked unbeatable. This season is different: on average Györ concede four more goals and score one less, thus they struggle more.

"The most important change is that we have become the team everybody wants to beat," says Martin Ambros.

"On top of that I think this year’s competition is stronger than last year’s. There are more outstanding teams, who all know us and the way we play by now, which comes as a bittersweet burden of being defending champions."

After the past season Györ waved goodbye to Andrea Lekic and Jovanka Radicevic, who both joined fellow Women’s EHF FINAL4 contenders Vardar, and replaced them with Hungarian international Bernadett Bognár-Bódi and Katarina Bulatovic.

Ambros: "In such a delicate system any alteration could be hazardous and we still have we some tuning to do with our new players.

"I am sure we are on the right path as shown by our results, but our fans are highly demanding and wins are not enough for them if they don’t come in style. I really love their attitude!"

The unbeaten run continues

Györ may look like struggling in some matches, but it is still extremely difficult to beat them.

The group stage became a comfortable affair, and four rounds into the main round, for which they were drawn in what swiftly became known as ‘Group of Death’), the Hungarians have lost just one point to Buducnost, who took away a 23:23 draw in the first round.

"Yes, we may not play as well as last year, but how we remained unbeaten shows our strength.

"Larvik, Krim and Buducnost played great games whilst Győr struggled to find the rhythm in these matches, but we still won – or at least didn’t lose. I think it’s safe to say Győr is pretty hard to tackle," says Martin. 

Hello, Budapest!

Most handball-lovers thought Group 1 will be clearer affair compared to Group 2, but it turned out to be the exact opposite.

Györ are already in the finals, Krim need a miracle to overtake Buducnost,  while in Group 1 nothing is decided yet.

“At the moment our minds are set to the next game, not the FINAL4. Buducnost away is a huge test of physical and mental strength; only a fully committed and fit team can win in Podgorica. We did it last year, and it’s not the only thing we want to repeat this year,” says Martin.

Further information: Tickets have gone on sale for the inaugural edition of the Women's EHF FINAL4 in Budapest on 3 and 4.

With 2,000 tickets sold already in the first few days, handball fans are better be quick if they want to get one of the 10,000 seats available at the showpiece event.

Ticket prices start from just 32 euro and can be purchased at www.ehfFINAL4.com.

TEXT: Bence Martha / ts