EHF European Cup

Busy weekend in Luxembourg and Switzerland

Peter Bruun / br

24 October 2014, 16:22

Busy weekend in Luxembourg and Switzerland

Last weekend, IUVENTA Michalovce, Femina Vise, HC Karpaty and Jomi Salerno all secured access to the third round of the Women's EHF Cup. This weekend, five more teams will follow them, and the action is really on in Dudelange in Luxembourg and in Swiss Nottwil, as both towns will be hosting double headers.

In the Centre Sportif René Hartmann in Dudelange, HB Dudelange are receiving Feta Epirus Anagennisi Artas from Greece. For Dudelange, Round 3 is their finest achievement in the EHF Cup this far. The team from Luxembourg reached that round in the last two seasons.

Artas have finer memories in Europe, but they go much further back. In the 1994/95 and 1995/96 seasons, the Greek club reached the Last 16 of the Women's EHF Champions League in both seasons. Those were the first two of six Champions League participations in a row for Artas. Since then, reaching the qualification tournament five times have been their finest achievements.

SPONO Nottwil have also had the taste of the Champions League, but that also goes a while back. Nottwil reached Round 1 in 2000/01 and the following year and Qualificiation Round 1 in the 2006/07 season.

However, the Swiss players probably do not think a lot about that, when they are going to try to qualify for the third round of the EHF Cup in two home matches against Bnei Hertzeliya. The visitors from Israel will be trying to copy their achievement from the 2011-12 season, when they reached the third round of the EHF Cup, their best European result so far. The entirely Israeli outfit should be well prepared for the two matches in the weekend, as they arrived in Switzerland already Thursday.

The three remaining matches in the tournament this weekend are all second legs of ongoing ties. OFN Ionias are practically in the third round, defending a 34:22 when receiving Tecton WAT Atzgersdorf.

Ankara Yeminahalle BSK are close to the next round, taking a 33:22 lead with them to Belarus and the second leg against HC Gomel, and DHK Banik Most are also clear favourites at home against LC Brühl Handball, after Most won their away game 27:21.