Big decisions in the Group Phase

Big decisions in the Group Phase

Match Day 4 will bring you eight exciting matches and should also give some idea about which teams will qualify for the Main Round. Both of last year’s finalists, Oltchim Vâlcea and Viborg HK, have only two points in the bank, so they will need victories to stay in the competition.

GROUP A

Budućnost Podgorica (MNE) - Viborg HK (DEN)


The Danish title holder needs a victory to stay in the CL competition, whilst for the host Budućnost, one point is enough to qualify for the Main Round.

Reigning champion Viborg is under great pressure in Round 4. The team of Jakob Vestergaard has only two points, and lost clearly against their rivals from Montenegro and Russia. Furthermore, Vestergaard has bad luck concerning the condition of his players, with most of his back line carrying injuries and main pillar of defence, Carmen Amariei Lungu, is out for at least two months due to a knee injury.

Nevertheless, Viborg will go all-out in all three of their remaining games and are desperate to produce an improved performance. The team held an emergency meeting at which the whole team declared that, despite the recent bad circumstances, they’ll give their utmost and will fight until the last second.

On the other side, Budućnost returned home from their Scandinavian journey with the maximum of four points in their pocket. They dominate the group with six points.

Knowing the high ambition at the club, the team will go for another victory, and it’ll be the second time that the world-class Bojana Popović will face her former team. Dragan Adžić.´s team is ready for the clash, except for left-winger Dragana Pecevska, who is out for a month with a torn muscle. Her replacement, the youngster Maida Mehmedović, has already proved herself at junior level, and gave a quality performance against Sävehof.

The EHF Women's Champions League top game of Group A, ŽRK Budućnost (MNE) vs. Viborg HK (DEN) on Sunday 7 November 2010 at 19:30 hrs (local time), will be broadcast live on our free-of-charge web stream on ehfTV.com.

IK Sävehof (SWE) - Dinamo Volgograd (RUS)

The young team of Sävehof hopes for its first Champions League point(s), whilst Dinamo wishes to cement its position in the second game of Group A.

The Swedes have clearly lost their home games so far, and against the Russians they would like to say a nice farewell to their loyal fans.

Despite losing for the third consecutive time, head coach Magnus Johansson remained very positive after the defeat against Budućnost: "We were an easy opponent for the Montenegrins, but I see for us a good chance against the Russians."

"They’re a weak away team and I think with our improving performance we can upset and beat them". - he continued.

The team of Victor Ryabykh will try to prove the opposite and collect some away points. Ryabykh’s players performed very well in Round 3 against reigning champion Viborg, implementing a powerful and dynamic game plan, and scoring an unbelievable 41 goals.

The back line, built around Kochetova, Khmyrova and Levina, seems to have gelled together very well and if the team improves its away performance, they’ll celebrate their first victory outside of Russia.

There’s no reason why they can’t be successful, as recently in the Russian championship they clearly defeated Zvezda in an away duel by 40:29.

GROUP B

Both teams lost in the last round, so in the most equal group of this season they both will need victories to maintain their interest in the Champions League.

The Hungarian team of Debrecen feels the pressure more, as they only have two points in the bank. With a defeat, their chances for reaching the Main Round will be very slim.

Unluckily for coach Vilmos Köstner, there is a further injury in his team. Besides line player Rita Borbás (out with a broken hand), back player Annamária Bogdanovics is also out, and she won’t play again in this year’s CL campaign.

Nevertheless, the Hungarians want to beat the German champion on home soil. Besides the loud support of local fans, Köstner is demanding a full and detailed examination of his opponent.

Leipzig didn’t manage to gather the maximum of six points in the first half of the group phase as, after two victories, they surprisingly and clearly lost against Hypo from Austria in the Arena Leipzig.

Coach Heine Jensen was extremely disappointed with his players’ on-court performance and is seeking an improvement and victory in Hungary. Jensen will miss classy line-player and defensive specialist Anne Müller who is out with injury.

The defeat against Hypo still hurts, but bolstered by their CL experience, the Germans wish to repeat the classy away performance shown against Itxako on Match Day 1 and bring home the two points from Hungary.

Austrian Hypo is back in the game after their first two points were gained in Leipzig, whilst Itxako impressed in the last two games and aim for a spot in the CL Main Round with another victory.

Not many experts thought Hypo would surprise Leipzig, but it was a clear result. Thanks to the marvelous Olga Sanko between the sticks, and Gabi Rotis as top-scorer, the Austrians celebrated victory and are now a candidate for a place in, at least, the Cup Winners Cup, or in the Main Round of the Champions League.

Certainly, to achieve this aim they’ll have to maintain and improve the form shown in the game against Leipzig. The list of injuries at Hypo is still long, although coach Matuschkowitz can now count on Norwegian international Terese Pedersen in goal.

There is still no Dani Piedade at the line-player position, although the Brazilian international may be able to play in the last two home games of Hypo.

Itxako, a dark horse for winning the group, dominated as a superb team unit in Hungary two weeks ago and didn’t really give Debrecen a chance. The Spaniards, backed by the experienced Carmen Martín and the returning Macarena Aguilar, are on the right track to go to the Main Round. This time, coach Ambros Martín and his players want to show their fans that they can do better than in the first round, where they lacked power and lost against Leipzig.

Randers, after suffering two defeats, meets Norwegian team Larvik, who are, along with Budućnost, the only spotless team in the Champions League of season 2010/2011.

The Danish team disappointed its fans two weeks ago when they clearly lost against Toulon. That result rather undermined the first round victory over Oltchim Vâlcea, but Randers still has a chance for second place in the group.

The team of Jan Leslie celebrated an away victory in the Danish league on Wednesday, when Randers defeated KIF by two goals. This could be a good sign before their Scandinavian duel against Larvik.

The Norwegians, however, displayed top form in the clash against Oltchim and aim for another victory, which would be the fourth in a row. An extra push for the players comes from the Norwegian Handball Federation, who nominated 10 Larvik players for the national squad for the upcoming EURO 2010 championship.

French Toulon is success-hungry after the victory in Denmark, whilst their Romanian counterpart Vâlcea needs a victory to keep its chances of reaching the Main Round alive.

Many problems beset the top Romanian team of Oltchim recently. After losing two games, the team of Péter Kovács cannot afford to fail again. Unless they qualify for the next phase of the CL, the coaching staff and the team members will be faced with harsh penalties.

So the Romanians are now under great pressure, and injuries to Cristina Neagu and Adriana Nechita make the situation even more difficult. Both key players are doubtful for the game against Toulon.

The French team also has some minor problems, as they didn’t have a successful rehearsal on Wednesday in the Palais des sports in Toulon. The team of Thierry Vincent lost important two points against Metz in the French championship, but hopes for a better performance in the queen’s class at the weekend.

Both teams have four points in the bank and with a victory in their direct encounter, one of them will be nearer to the Champions League dream of the last eight.

In the previous round, the Russians struggled at home against strong rival from Croatia, Podravka Vegeta, and could only convince their coach Evgeny Trefilov with their second half performance.

This meant another home victory for Zvezda, and against KRIM they aim for the third, before they leave for two away matches in the last rounds. It’ll be very tough, though, as Zvezda gives very variable performances.

In Wednesday’s top game in the Russian Championship they lost on home soil by 11 goals against another CL participant, Dinamo Volgograd.

Krim, on the other hand, had no chance at home against Hungary’s AUDI ETO. The, so far, impressive Slovenians missed the injured Dragana Cvijič on the line and this was a key factor in losing the game.

Other than that, Lekić and co. met a massive wall in defence and wasn’t able to break it. Despite the loss, the Slovenians aim for victory on Zvezda’s court.

KRIM beat the Russians in Round 2 and if the players of Marta Bon can reproduce their game plan from that first game, they’ll have good chance to take points from Russia.

Coach and master tactician Trefilov will surely have a serious word to say about this, as he and his Zvezda team aim for the Main Round, where they have not been seen for two years.

The EHF Women's Champions League game of Group D, Zvezda Zvenigorod (RUS) vs. RK Krim (SLO) on Sunday 7 November 2010 at 14:00 hrs (local time) will be broadcast live on our free-of-charge web stream on ehfTV.com.

HC Podravka Vegeta (CRO) - Győri AUDI ETO KC (HUN)


Croatian champion Podravka hopes for its first CL point(s) of the season in the duel against Győr, whilst the Hungarians want to cement their good position with another away victory.

Podravka must be the most unlucky team this season so far, as they have worked hard and produced two great performances, but lost both games in an unlucky way.

Two rounds before, these two teams played a tight game against each other, with the Croats keeping the game open until the final minutes. On home soil, coach Neven Hrupec hopes for a performance of similar quality from Pasicnik and co. and with this, those first vital points.

On the other side, the fans of Győri AUDI ETO were overwhelmed with the team’s performance on Match Day 3. The Hungarians overran rival KRIM and dominated with a very strong defence, and a fantastic game plan from Csaba Konkoly.

The coach can call on all of his players for this week’s game, and that performance against the Slovenians reminded one of the best days of Győr’s form last season, when they marched into the semi-final stage.

In the game against KRIM, super-star Anita Görbicz showed her best form, scoring some marvelous goals, and giving the sort of assists usually only seen in men’s games.

Both goalkeepers, Lunde Haraldsen and Pálinger, saved with high percentages, giving Győr great confidence. However, they will not underestimate an opponent that is very dangerous at home and ready to cause a surprise.