Easy tickets for Erice and Atzgersdorf; exciting end in Faroe Islands

• Handball Erice from Italy paved the way to the next round with a dominant 46:25 victory against ZRK Zeleznicar Indija in the first leg, in which the 2012 IHF World Player of the Year and 2013 World Champion with Brazil, Alexandra do Nascimento, shone bright with seven strikes. The Serbian side improved in the second leg on Italian ground, but they finally conceded a 37:29 defeat, despite eight goals by Natasa Cetkovic — the aggregate result was 83:54 in favour of Erice
• a 39:20 in the first leg in Vienna was a statement win from MADx WAT Atzgersdorf against Holon Yuvalim, and the second leg ended with an even clearer gap, 41:19, as Anabel Cosic and Ines Mustedanagic scored 11 and 10 goals, respectively, in the double-header; the best player for the visitors was goalkeeper Volha Nikitsina with an overall of 21 saves
• the second leg of the double-header between Energa Start Elblag and Trabzon Ortahisar BSK will be played on Monday, but the Polish side took a 39:32 victory on Saturday in Türkiye
• the outcome of the two Slovak sides last weekend was quite different: Dunajská Streda lost 31:21 after a 21:7 at the break at ATTICGO Bm Elche, as Carmen Filipa Claudino scored 10 goals for the Spanish hosts; on the other side, HK Slovan Duslo Sala took the clearest of all away wins with 36:27 at ZRK Krivaja in Bosnia and Herzegovina
• despite 16 saves from goalkeeper Marisa Berisha, KHF Shqiponja from Kosovo was only a playing ball for the Swiss side Yellow Winterthur; Spaniard Stephania Oliveira de Almeida scored eight times for the hosts, who opened the gate for round 3 widely with a 38:23 victory

Venlo seal ticket after thrilling showdown in Faroe Islands

Two matches were scheduled, but only one was played — and it also needed overtime to decide the winners. The first leg of the duel between H71 and Cabooter Fortes Venlo was initially scheduled for Friday 26 September, but it needed to be postponed. Due to severe weather conditions, the Dutch side could not fly to Faroe Island, but Venlo arrived on Saturday morning and it was agreed between the clubs and the European Handball Federation (EHF) that the round 3 ticket will be decided in a single match on Saturday night.

And as all circumstances were special, so was the match. H71 were ahead 15:12 at the break, and also held a 23:18 lead after 40 minutes. The scoreboard showed 35:32 with only 100 seconds left, but then Venlo put their foot on the gas and reduced the gap to just one goal, 35:34. They also received a penalty shot with the final buzzer, converted into a goal by Elisa Marsman for the unexpected overtime. 

10 minutes later, the result was 37:37 — and another overtime started. Again, Elisa Marsman netted the crucial goal for the 40:39 win, as both teams failed to score in the second half of the second overtime. Despite 14 goals from Anna Elisabeth Halsdóttir, H71 failed to proceed to the next round, while Marsman topped Venlo’s scorer list with nine strikes.

Photos © Joe Pappalardo (main & in-text)