GERMAN POWER IN DENMARK

German superstar Grit Jurackneeded only 12 attempts to score her 10 goals when bombing her Danish clubViborg to its first victory in the Champions League group B.

The scoreboard revealed 38-29after 60 intense minutes. The Danish team - including five Olympic Champions and a “new” European Champion - managedto keep up the pace all through the match while the Russians ran low on energyand new ideas besides their various offensive defence formations.

The Volgograd defence remaineda hurdle for the Danes during the entire match. The Danish victory however wasdown to the denfence -  but their own.Viborg managed to set up a solid defence which became the basis for severalfast breaks, but one Russian player did seem to know the code for the defencelock: Inna Mokhova. The right backcourt player scored eight of the Russiangoals and made several assists to her fellow players.

The match was even until thebeginning of the second half. From 20-20, the home team Viborg graduallyincreased the lead.

The German Grit Jurackcontinued her performance for her new Danish club, but also one of the Olympicstars, Katrine Fruelund, play an important role, though she has only recentlyreturned after an injury which also kept her out of the Danish team at theEuropean Championships. Fruelund scored six times and was Viborg-coach RyanZinglersen’s preferred penalty shooter.

Though Viborg won by a largemargin, the German ”bomber” Grit Jurack had her doubt in the beginning of thematch as Dinamo Volgograd kept on high pressure and pace in their defence:”After five minutes I said to myself: This is going to be tough, but as thematch went on we had it under control.”

The 38-29 victory givesViborg second place in group B after second play round. Hypo Niederösterreichleads the group now having four point after Saturday’s 31-22 win in Norwayagainst Nordstrand 2000. Volgograd takes third place as Nordstrand 2000 isfourth as they have lost both their matches. The group is still completely openbefore third round next weekend when Volgograd meets Hypo and Viborg visitsNordstrand.

Text: Jens Ole Sorensen