KOMETALTAKE VICTORY IN THE 1ST LEG OF THE QUARTERFINALS!

In the first quarterfinal match of women's ChampionsLeague, Kometal played host to Krim Ljubljana in Skopje. It was certain beforethe match began that this would be a very close quarterfinal. Both teams knoweach other very well, so there were no secrets. This time around Kometal was thebetter the as Krim showed one of their poorest playing performances thisseason.

In Kale Hall, where Macedonian club play all theirentire home matches, there were more than 3000 spectators supporting Kometal.The match started with complete determination on both sides with all the bestplayers. Kometal was leading almost all the time during the first half; it wasobvious that Andriy Portnoy prepared his team very well on their competitors.

AggressiveKometal defence

Kometal started with very aggressive defence andtotally »disabled« the best Krim's scorer, Ludmila Bodnieva. Tone Tiselj's teamhad lot of difficulties with organisation of attacks and the Macedoniansdefensive formation 6-0 was a tough task for guests. However, it was also visiblethat Kometal's players were nervous in first 30 minutes of match and because ofthat, they made many mistakes. So, even though they had initiative they werenot able to »run away« from Krim for more than three goals. There predictable performancesfrom Kometal, Olga Bujanova, who lead the team and from the great goalkeeperNataliya Borysenko. Krim was not showing any interest in their game, the onlyplayer who seemed to be in the mood to play was Nataliya Derepasko who with fewgreat shots was able to bring Krim back into the game with a deficit of onlyone goal. The first half ended with the scores at 12:11.

Borysenkosaves in last minutes

The second part of quarterfinal match continued withKometal's initiative. Obviously, Saturday was not Krim's day. On numerous occasions,they were able to close the gap and come near, but then made impractical technicalmistakes and Portnoy's team was able to keep the distance. Once again, Bujanovawas extremely precise in shooting towards Dinu or Ferkas in goal so they werenot able to stop the ball. In 60 minutes, Bujanova scored 10 times, Ozel andTsygitsa also played well. A good cooperation between Kometal's team was highlyrewarded at the end. Ex-Krim player Borysenko in last few minutes blocked Krim'sattempts to score. Next weekend, Kometal will travel to Ljubljana with a three-goaladvantage.

Text: Maja Mastnak, SiOL-Sportal