10.03.2016, 09:12
Ukraine and Slovenia take big wins

ROUND REVIEW: Ukraine and Slovenia earn their first victories as Italy and FYR Macedonia remain on zero points after the third round of Women's EHF EURO 2016 Qualification

Ukraine and Slovenia take big wins

After two defeats each in October, Ukraine and Slovenia won their matches on Thursday night in the same clear way - by respective margins of 16 and 17 goals.

GROUP 2
Italy vs Ukraine 18:34 (10:18)

After losing against Czech Republic by 18 goals and Serbia by 14 goals, the Italian side were again completely chanceless in their third match. Against the more experienced, more powerful and taller Ukrainians they could only manage to keep up until an 8:7 lead in minute 17.

Thanks to a 7:1 series the away team forged ahead decisively to 14:9 and right with the half-time buzzer were ahead by double figures for the first time.

After the break the Italians lacked the power and grains to resist, while Ukraine had an outstanding scoring percentage of 77.

Best striker was Olga Perederiy, who netted in 10 from 10 attempts. But Annika Niederwieser even matched that feat as she scored 10 times, too.

GROUP 4
Slovenia vs FYR Macedonia 35:17 (18:8)

After losing their openers against Serbia and Montenegro, the Slovenian women showed their second face against the Macedonians.

By the fifth clearest difference in Women's EHF EURO 2016 Qualification so far (the biggest is still the Dutch 45:24 score against Bulgaria) the team of coach Uros Bregar underlined their ambitions to make it to Sweden.

FYR Macedonia were only a playing ball for the hosts and remain on the bottom of the table, still waiting for their first point.

The one-sided encounter already looked decided after 18 minutes when Slovenia were ahead with a double-figure gap (12:2) for the first time.

After this disastrous start, the Macedonians were shocked and only managed to maintain the distance until the break.

Already in that stage, top scorer Barbara Lazovic (six goals from six attempts in total) was the Slovenian leader. Also, defence and goalkeeping were impressive.

As both sides already duel again on Saturday, the hosts gave playing time for younger players and still easily forged ahead to their first 15-goal advance at 27:12 in the middle of the second half.

The biggest intermediate gap were 19 goals at 34:15. Best Macedonian scorer was Teodora Keramichieva with five.

TEXT: Björn Pazen / ew