French teams seal first group stage victories in Germany

The first seven games in the inaugural group stage of the new-look Women’s EHF Cup took place on Saturday, with IK Savehof and Randers HK due to complete the Round 1 programme on Sunday.

There are two French teams in the group stage, and they both got off to a great start at away games in Germany. Nantes Loire Atlantique HB beat Vfl Oldenburg 37:30, and Brest Bretagne Handball smashed HC Leipzig 34:15.

Two of the three Russian clubs, namely Rostov-Don and Kuban, also enjoyed a good start, both beating their opponents from Hungary, although Handball Club Lada were defeated in Denmark.

GROUP A

Vfl Oldenburg (GER) vs Nantes Loire Atlantique HB (FRA) 30:37 (11:19)

In the three Women’s EHF Cup qualification rounds, Nantes won six games out of six, and have now added one more in the group round. The French side played better than Oldenburg both in attack and defence, which helped them to a clear victory.

Five Nantes players scored at least five goals, including German international Isabell Klein. The visitors dominated the whole game as Oldenburg players made too many mistakes in a high-speed match.

In the 25th minute the score was 10:14, yet by half time Nantes had an eight-goal lead. In the second half, Oldenburg head coach Leszek Krowicki changed the defence to 4-2. Although his team started to create more chances, they failed to capitalise and Nantes took the win.

GROUP B

HC Leipzig (GER) vs Brest Bretagne Handball (FRA) 15:34 (6:13)

German side HC Leipzig played in the Women’s EHF Champions League last autumn and narrowly missed promotion to the Main Round, but are looking vulnerable in the Women’s EHF Cup.

One of the reason is the epidemic of long-term injuries which has ruled out a number of team leaders. In their absence, head coach Norman Rentsch has had to call up a few junior players.

In their opening match against Brest Bretagne Leipzig were in the lead just once during the whole game, with Saskia Lang opening the score. After that, the hosts could not match their opponents.

The half-time score of 6:13 looked decent compared to 10:25 midway through the second half. Brest players, enjoying their maiden European season, just did not want to stop and finally clinched the biggest victory of the day in the Women’s EHF Cup.

Kuban (RUS) vs Alba Fehérvár KC (HUN) 31:26 (18:8)

With Russian head coach Evgeni …

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