The FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria (Hungary) has won four consecutive games, further raising its chances of advancing to the quarterfinals of the 2024/25 EHF Women’s Handball Champions League.
Rail Cargo Hungary defeated Crimea Mercator Ljubljana 27-22 in the ninth round of Group A match at Arena Stozice in Ljubljana, Slovenia on the 11th (local time).
With this victory, Rail Cargo Hungary remained in second place with 8 wins and 1 loss (16 points) and is likely to go straight to the quarterfinals. It maintains a seven-point gap with the third-place team and has five games left.
사진 확대 Photo 2024/25 EHF Women’s Handball Champions League Group A 9th round rail cargo Hungaria and cream mercator Ljubljana, photo source = European Handball Federation
On the other hand, Crimea Mercator Ljubljana fell to fourth place with four wins and five losses (8 points). He failed to break the four-game losing streak and failed to record a win after the fourth round.
Rail Cargo Hungary led the attack with five goals each by Daria Dmitrieva, Orlane Kanor and Antje Malestein. Goalkeeper Laura Glauser contributed greatly to the team’s victory with 16 saves.
The Crimean Mercator Ljubljana fought hard, with Ana Gros scoring six goals and Grace Zaadi Deuna and Jovanka Radicevic scoring four goals each. However, the 10 saves that the two goalkeepers collaborated on failed to prevent the team’s defeat.
During the first 10 minutes, they exchanged goals with each other and developed tightly. Rail Cargo Hungary took the lead with four goals in a row, followed by a 14-9, five-goal deficit and a 15-11 lead to finish the first half.
Early in the second half, Crimea Mercator Ljubljana scored three goals in a row and trailed 17-15. However, Rail Cargo Hungary opened the scoring around 50 minutes into the second half, allowing Crimea to chase by two goals but scoring three goals in a row just before the end of the match to finish 27-22.
“It was a good game,” Rail Cargo Hungaria coach Alan Heine told the European Handball Federation. To be honest, I wanted to see it as an audience. I’ve been really looking forward to this game for a lot of reasons. It was impossible to predict what kind of strategy would come out because Crimea recruited a new coach. But overall, I’m very satisfied with this game,” he said.
[Kim Yongpil, MK Sports Reporter]