Friendly foes to meet once again
There will be no shortage of drama this week in the EHF Champions League Women, as last week’s card will be flipped, with the same teams facing off again after delivering some excellent games in round 7.
For 50 minutes we showed that we can stop CSM Bucuresti, unfortunately our performance dropped in the end, but I am very confident that we will be able to correct these mistakes this week. We really want to win, I hope that we can play in a special atmosphere, our fans always give us enormous support.
This week we spent time analysing their 5:1 and 5+1 defenses. We practiced several solutions well and solved the puzzle, but now it's time to show it on Sunday. We showed a great game until the 50th minute and kept the score, parried them, mistakes in the attack and their easy goals cost us. With good analysis, keeping agreements, aggressive defence, our energy, which we put together, we can correct the mistakes we made on Sunday and beat Odense.
Esbjerg is a team that certainly deserves the EHF FINAL4. Their outside line would win in the Croatian men's premier league, and their quality is fascinating. We must finish some things with them that we still need to do in Zagreb. Remember that we had a good result and two minutes with one player more, but instead of patiently looking for a chance to score, we rushed and conceded two goals, and that's where the game broke. We have to play even more disciplined, be as combative as we were in Zagreb and be a little better in the realisation phase.
They are a difficult team, because they are playing more on intuition, rather than the more rigid structure we have and are more accustomed to play against. They style is completely different and that will be a challenge for us to face.
CS Rapid Bucuresti (ROU) vs Györi Audi ETO KC (HUN)
Sunday 10 December, 14:00 CET, live on EHFTV
- at the midway point of the competition, the Hungarian team are leading the way in group B with 12 points; Rapid Bucuresti are fourth with 10
- in last week's match, Györ won 32:30 with the help of Ana Gros and Silje Solberg
- Györ's right back Katrin Klujber is the competition's third top scorer with 51 goals scored; she will face goalkeeper Ivana Kapitanovic who has a 35 per cent save efficiency in the competition and made a difference in the last match between the two sides
- Ana Gros is out for a few weeks due to a nose injury after colliding with a Rapid player in last week's match
- Györ come to Bucuresti after a 36:24 win over Bekescsabai; Rapid Bucuresti were equally effective against Baia Mare in Romania (38:24)
- this will be only the second time these two clubs meet
Storhamar Handball Elite (NOR) vs WHC Buducnost BEMAX (MNE)
Sunday 10 December, 16:00 CET, live on EHFTV
- Storhamar lost last week's encounter narrowly (23:24) after playing at a high level throughout
- Buducnost's strongest link in the 24:23 win was the goalkeeper Armelle Attingré with a high 41 per cent save efficiency. Attingré is also the competition's top goalkeeper after seven rounds
- this is the clash of the mid-section of the group – Buducnost are fifth with seven points won so far, and Storhamar follow with four
- Buducnost line player Nikolina Vukcevic: "We will be without Milena Raicevic and Ivona Pavicevic, who are injured. The result could have been better in the first match in Podgorica, but it is our fault because we made many mistakes, especially in the first half. It will be extremely difficult in Norway, but if we reduce the number of technical errors, we can hope for a positive result."
- both teams have an almost equal attack efficiency in the Champions League - Buducnost netted 189 times at 60 per cent and the Norwegian club scored five less (184) at 56 per cent
- Storhamar were successful against Aker Topphandball in the domestic cup, qualifying to the next stage after a 39:23 win
