Women handballers celebrate second Champions League win | OneFootball

Squad

The squad is slowly starting to look a bit thin. Ona Vegué was also unavailable against Sola. The Spaniard had injured her ankle in training and therefore did not travel to Norway at all. Backcourt player Mareike Thomaier was also ruled out at short notice. She underwent appendix surgery on Sunday. Emma Olsson (thigh), Lena Hausherr (knee) and Pam Korsten (knee) were also absent.

Match summary

The game in Sola got underway with a penalty for BVB after just 30 seconds. Alina Grijseels converted confidently. With regular penalty taker Ona Vegué injured and Mareike Thomaier also unavailable, the captain took over the responsibility – and settled into the game very well.

The match started evenly, with a high tempo on both sides. After eight minutes, the score was 5:5, including two converted penalties from Grijseels. What stood out for BVB was their strong transition defense, which prevented the Norwegians from taking the lead. Alongside Grijseels, goalkeeper Sarah Wachter and Guro Nestaker also impressed, with the latter already scoring three times in her home country after 15 minutes.

The second 15 minutes of the first half began with BVB holding a two-goal lead (11:9). Kelly Vollebregt showed her finishing ability on the right wing with a quick double. Grijseels also remained composed from the penalty line and made it 13:11 with her third goal in the 19th minute. After that, neither team could quite maintain the high pace. Sola increasingly took advantage of gaps in the BVB defense. Fortunately for the Black & Yellows, things continued to click in attack, while Sarah Wachter was having a strong day in goal.

After Malin Holter missed a penalty, Wachter produced a fine throw into the empty Sola net to make it 17:14 in the 25th minute. Three minutes before the break, Kay Rothenpieler reached into his bag of tricks and switched to playing with four backcourt players. During the timeout, the BVB coach called for “another two or three goals before halftime.” Guro Nestaker responded with her fourth goal to make it 18:14, Dana Bleckmann increased it to 19:15, and Nestaker again produced the nicest goal of the game for the 20:15 halftime score.

After the break, the question was how Sola intended to make up a five-goal deficit. Camilla Herrem initially cut it to 17:20 after three minutes. BVB were slow to get going again. It took three and a half minutes before Nestaker scored Dortmund’s first goal of the second half to make it 21:18. Rothenpieler demanded more movement in defense. Understandably so, because the five-goal lead had temporarily been reduced to a narrow 24:22 by the 40th minute.

At that stage, Lisa Antl’s goal for 25:22 was extremely important. Shortly afterwards, Merel Freriks made it 26:22 in the 43rd minute after a brilliant assist from Dana Bleckmann. Following a strongly won ball by Grijseels, it was Freriks again who scored for 28:23 in the 45th minute.

Lisa Antl was incredibly combative yet completely fair on the unfamiliar left side of the defense, winning ball after ball. But Sola stayed in it. Ten minutes from the end, BVB led by only three goals (28:25), and five minutes later it was 29:25. But time was now on the side of the Black & Yellows. When Grijseels converted her fifth penalty to make it 30:25, the atmosphere in the arena grew noticeably quieter. Sola increasingly looked out of ideas.

Four minutes from time, Rothenpieler took another timeout and ended the seven-against-six numerical overload. Grijseels called for them to run down the clock. Lara Egeling removed the last doubts with a brilliant lob to make it 32:27 with 120 seconds remaining. That sealed their second win in the EHF Champions League.

Reactions

Kay Rothenpieler (Coach): “It was a deserved win, I’d even call it a big point because it was a key game against Sola. I think we always had the game under control. Between the 40th and 42nd minute, we had a difficult spell when we missed two shots, but we dealt with it convincingly. Sarah Wachter had a really good day in goal. With Mareike Thomaier out, we naturally had fewer options in the backcourt, but Alina Grijseels and Guro Nestaker did a very good job. By using Lisa Antl out wide in defense, we gave ourselves new momentum. You could see that we’ve continued to develop and showed a completely different body language.”

Outlook

The next game in the Alsco Women’s Handball Bundesliga is on Wednesday, 7 October. Buxtehuder SV will then come to Halle Wellinghofen (throw-off 7:30 p.m., live on Dyn and Sporteurope.TV). A highly interesting opponent who, like BVB, has also qualified for the quarter-finals of the DHB Cup. During halftime of the Bundesliga match, BVB women’s footballer Alexandra Popp will conduct the draw for the next round of the DHB Cup.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.