Dunarea Braila celebrate a dominant win in Koprivnica

It didn't take long for the Romanian club to establish dominance in the first half as well as the match and furthermore, the too many turnovers and technical errors (12) made by the hosts didn't help them to counter Dunarea Braila's quality.

In the first-ever meeting between the two teams, the eight-goal advantage built by the visitors at the break was enough for them to even lower their tempo in the second half, but still comfortably win the match, to leave them in an extremely favourable position to progress to the EHF European League Finals Women for the first time in their history ahead of the return leg in Romania next week.

QUARTER-FINALS, FIRST LEG

HC Podravka Vegeta (CRO) vs H.C. Dunarea Braila (ROU) 26:32 (13:21)

• the determined visitors built an early four-goal (1:5) lead inside the opening six minutes to set the tone for the rest of the first half in which they completely dominated
• the goalscoring right wing Josipa Mamic displayed an excellent performance as she scored 10 goals for Podravka Vegeta and only missed one attempt
• the motivated hosts tried to mount a comeback in the second half, but Dunarea Braila's goal difference from the break proved uncatchable for them
• the goalkeeping duo of Kira Trusova (10 saves) and Elena Serban played a pivotal role in helping H.C. Dunarea Braila to record a win as the former was brilliant in the first half, while the latter made three clutch saves in the second half
• the dozen Dunarea Braila fans who made the long trip from Romania to Croatia made themselves heard in Koprivnica as they supported their favourites with passion throughout the whole match, and after the final whistle, Braila's players celebrated with them after repaying them with a quality performance on the court

Faultless performance by Croatia's line player proved too much for the hosts

Powerful line player, Katarina Jezic shined on home soil as the Croatian was an unsolvable enigma for Podravka Vegeta's defence throughout the match as she scored seven goals from as many attempts and displayed a fantastic performance.

Additionally, her connection on the court with the super-experienced playmaker Kristina Liscevic was a joy to watch as the 34-year-old pulled the strings for the visitors as well as oozed class with every move she made in offense and found the back of the net on five occasions. In the end, the duo, Jezic - Liscevic was just too good for the hosts to stop it as they combined for 12 goals altogether.