14.03.2021, 03:48
Brest reach quarter-finals for second straight year

PLAY-OFF REVIEW: a first-half flurry sent Brest into a win against Esbjerg and secured a quarter-final spot for the French side

Following a 33:27 win away from home in the first-leg match, Brest Bretagne Handball were seen as favourites in the DELO EHF Champions League play-off tie against Team Esbjerg.

And at home, the French team confirmed their advantage, as a 30:27 victory sent them into the quarter-final.

PLAY-OFF, SECOND LEG
Brest Bretagne Handball (FRA) vs Team Esbjerg (DEN) 30:27 (19:11)
First leg: 33:27, Brest win 63:54 on aggregate

• Brest reached the quarter-final for the second straight year; last season, they did it for the first time ever before the season was cancelled
• Sanna Solberg-Isaksen opened the score, but it was Esbjerg’s only lead in the entire game
• trailing by eight goals at the break, Esbjerg used a 9:3 run to close the cap to 22:20 midway through the second half, but Brest weathered the storm
• Ana Gros became top scorer of the match with seven goals, while Mette Tranborg netted six times for Esbjerg
• in the quarter-final, Brest are set to meet the winners of the tie Metz Handball vs BV 09 Borussia Dortmund, whose encounters were called off this week

Gros overtakes Neagu again

The scorers’ race has seen an exciting battle for the top place between CSM’s Cristina Neagu and Brest’s Ana Gros recently. On Saturday, Neagu netted 11 times and became the first player to hit a 100-goal mark in the current season. Yet Gros, who had 97 before the game, went level with her Romanian rival already at the break, and she added four more in the second half to increase her tally to 104 goals.

TEXT: EHF / Sergey Nikolaev