Two teams book direct quarter-final spots two years running
Only two of the four sides which earned safe passage to the quarter-finals last season repeated this feat, as reigning champions Vipers Kristiansand and finalists Györi Audi ETO KC finished in the top two places in their groups. This assures they are one round away from a return to Budapest.
While Vipers clinched their berth with three games left and won the group after CSM Bucuresti lost against Krim Mercator Ljubljana in the last round, Györ had to sweat after losing three matches, including their first one at home after more than seven years, making it to the quarter-finals only after their 29:28 win against Team Esbjerg on Saturday, in the last round of the group phase.
The two powerhouses are joined by CSM Bucuresti, who made it directly to the quarter-finals for the first time since the introduction of the new format, as they eye their first EHF FINAL4 berth since the 2017/18 season. French champions Metz Handball also qualified directly to the quarter-finals after an immaculate season, where they lost a single game and delivered two losses to Györ.
Goals galore in the group phase
Only one game in the group phase of the 2022/23 season of the EHF Champions League Women has been cancelled, the last round contest between WHC Buducnost BEMAX and Kastamonu Belediyesi GSK, due to the tragedy that hit Türkiye, an earthquake that claimed the lives of over 33.000 people. As the game was called 10:0 in the favour of Buducnost, it took the tally of goals for the season to 6364, or an average of 56.82 goals per match.
Without counting this match, the average number of goals scored this season is 57.24 per match, the highest in the history of the competition, an uptick of nearly one goal per game from the last season, which saw an average of 56.53 goals scored per game. There were 15 games where a team scored 40 goals or more in a single game, with SG BBM Bietigheim also tying the record for the largest number of goals scored in a single match by a team, 47, which was previously set by Vardar in March 2015 against Krim Mercator Ljubljana.
A rookie that stood tall in a difficult season
Two rookies lined up at the start of the season and both – CS Rapid Bucuresti and Storhamar Handball Elite – were allocated to Group B, alongside several powerhouses and very experienced teams in the EHF Champions League Women. While both managed to progress into the play-offs, it was the Romanian champions which really shined, delivering some excellent games, especially on their home court, where they were one of the four teams to finish without a loss, winning six times and drawing once.
Despite a plethora of injuries suffered throughout the season, Rapid were fighting for a quarter-finals berth until the 13th round, when their narrow 36:34 loss against Metz Handball proved to be decisive. Wins against Györ and Esbjerg at home and a draw against Metz also cemented their position, while their fans were branded as the best ever by both Rapid’s players and opponents, creating an excellent atmosphere in the “Polivalenta” Arena in Bucharest. The Romanian side will face Krim Mercator Ljubljana in the play-offs, in a battle between a team with little European experience and a side that will feature for the 300th time in the EHF Champions League Women, the most games played in the history of the competition.
Scoring milestones hit by stars
Before the start of the season, only one player, former Györ centre back Anita Görbicz, had scored in quadruple digits in the European top competition, finishing her career with 1016 goals. The record for the most goals scored by a single player was broken during Krim’s game against Odense in December, when right wing Jovanka Radicevic leapfrogged Görbicz, after previously hitting the 1000-goal milestone in October.
Romanian left back Cristina Neagu also scored her 1000th goal late in the game against SG BBM Bietigheim in January, despite needing 90 goals to hit the milestone in the start of the season, but has not passed Görbicz yet. Currently, Radicevic is the all-time top scorer of the EHF Champions League Women, with 1056 goals, followed by Görbicz and Neagu, who is currently at 1015 goals, after putting her fifth season scoring in triple digits.
Passionate battle for the top goal scorer award
But Neagu is not the top scorer of the season, after dropping a few beats in the last weeks, as well as having a slow start of the competition this time around. Still, the Romanian left back, who can become the first player in history to win the top goal scorer award four times in the EHF Champions League Women, is not far away of the first place, with 105 goals, hitting her 100th goal in the loss against Krim Mercator Ljubljana on Sunday, in the last round of the group phase.
After 14 games in the group phase, the top scorer is Team Esbjerg’s Henny Reistad, the MVP and the third top scorer at the EHF EURO 2022, who had an outstanding start of 2023, with a 15-goal outing against Rapid and a 12-goal outing against Györ, taking her overall tally to 107 goals. With Esbjerg having to go through the play-offs and playing more games than Neagu’s team, CSM Bucuresti, Reistad becomes the favourite for the crown. The podium in the top goal scorer standings is completed by the reigning MVP of the EHF FINAL4, Vipers’ Marketa Jerabkova, who scored 95 goals.
Positive aspects to be taken, despite elimination
We said goodbye to four sides, the teams that finished seventh and eighth places in the two groups, with a single team, DHK Banik Most, finishing without a point, losing all the 14 games they played. Despite creating the second-largest losing streak in the history of the competition, currently at 17 games, Most have unearthed a gem in left back Charlotte Cholevova, who scored 77 goals and is on the seventh place in the top goal scorer list. The 20-year-old back, who was the top scorer of the 2022 IHF Women’s Junior World Championship last summer, promises to be an excellent player and this experience will help her on this journey.
On the other hand, Kastamonu Belediyesi GSK finally broke their duck and won a game this season, finishing with three points and Croatian champions HC Lokomotiva Zagreb sealed a draw, despite scoring only 19.7 goals per game. The biggest surprise was SG BBM Bietigheim, who failed to make the play-offs despite finishing with 12 points and boasting the sixth attack in the competition, with an average of 30.6 goals per game, undone by their injury woes.
