Orsan Elda Prestigio suffers it's first defeat at thehands of Krim Ljubljana

On Saturday afternoon, the two remaining undefeatedteams in Group D came face to face for the first time. Elda, which lies in southeast region of Spain, played host tothe national champions from Spain and Slovenia. In the hall 2500 spectatorswere anticipating a great battle for victory between the two teams, especiallysince as Slovenia has won the prestigious Champions League competition twicewithin the last four seasons, the match was expected to be a very close, but itwas not like that at all.

The Slovenian players, lead by coach Tone Tiselj,were completely in control over the whole 60 minutes of this third round groupD match. They started extremely well and took great advantage of the situationscoring 7 goals in the first nine minutes. The home team only managed toachieve their second goal in 10th minute of the game. It was obvious that AngelSandoval's team were nervous before the start of this important match. Eldaseemed to be in first half always “chasing” the handballers from Ljubljana. Itwas not entirely easy for the players from Krim; they had some “crisis” minuteswhen they were not able to go through the aggressive Spanish defence. Theymanaged to finish the first 30 minutes of the match 4 goals ahead.

Total control of match

After the players returned to the court after theirbreak, it first seemed that the picture would c change as Elda got of to a goodstart in the 2^nd half and were able to bridge the gap in the scoresbut only by a small amount. With help of the loud crowd, Stephanie Cano,Silvana Ilic, Susana Fraile and others started to play better and they did notmake so many mistakes in attack. Nevertheless, once again Krim Ljubljana showedwhy they were twice at the top of the Champions League.

Unbelievably Ludmila Bodnieva and the great Ukrainianplayer Maryna Vergelyuk did not let host team to come closer than two goals.Krim's defence of 5-1 was perfect, they played their best game of the year andwhat was more the goalkeeper Luminita Dinu was on top form.

This was too much for Elda Prestigio who could nothold up against the constant pressure from their opponents. 45 minutes into thegame, the Slovenian national champions were at their biggest advantage when thescore was 17:26.

Even though the players from Krim loosened up a bitin the 2^nd half and by the time the Spanish had caught up a bit, thematch was already decided. Krim won consecutively for the third time in season2004/05. The players of Elda Prestigio were defeated for the first time. Thematch ended with the result 25:30. This win means that Krim of Slovenia takesthe lead within group D.

After the match, the coach from Krim Ljubljana wassatisfied: “My girls had to work really hard to beat Elda, who had greatsupport from their fans. In addition, we played this game for our players thatdid not come to Spain, Tanja Oder and Andrea Farkas.”

One of key players from Elda, also member of Slovenianational team, Silvana Ilic, admitted after the match that Krim was too strong:“I think we played well today but Krim was simply better. They surprised uswith defensive formation and we did not have the right solution.” said themember of Elda Pretsigio.

Text: Maja Mastnak