NO EASY TEAM IN THE WOMEN’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

The 12^th Women’s Champions Leaguesemi-final draw took place on Tuesday 22^nd March 2005. After thedraws for the Challenge Cup, Cupwinners Cup and EHF Cup, came the highlyanticipated Champions League. All of the semi-final Champions League clubs werein Vienna to follow the draw to report back home as quickly as possible.

A place in these semis is worth its weight in gold,with probably the closest match in the quarter-finals being the match betweenViborg and Dunaferr. For the first time this season two matches (one ChampionsLeague match) were decided by a 7m throw.

All four Champions League semi-finalistshave won the title before, so there will be no easy matches at this stage ofthe competition, with all four contenders going for gold again.

eurohandball.com talked to three of therepresentatives about their first reactions after the draw:

Dunaferr SE

György Donner, Manager ofDunaferr, had a ironic smile on his face when he was drawn againstSlagelse – who are certainly no stranger to Dunaferr. Luck has not been onDunferr’s side as far as this opponent is concerned. Two season’s ago, Dunaferrwas defeated by the Danes in the EHF Cup final and last season, Dunaferr missedout by a five goal difference in the semis of the Champions League. Slagelsewent on to take the title. Donner was disappointed that – yet again – Slagelsehad the 2^nd leg home advantage, which could be the decisive factor,but he is confident that his team is strong enough to move to the final.

Dunaferris renowned for its fantastic fans and the Icehockey Arena will be jam-packedfull, filling the 6 000 capacity. Since the tragic death of Kulcsar, the teamhas gone through an unlucky patch, with a series of injuries, but the team hasstuck together and most of the players are fit – only the left and right wingare still recovering from knee injuries but Dunaferr is confident about theirreplacements. They were even forced to use junior players in the match againstBuducnost this Champions League season and they even won – showing how strongDunaferr handball is! Dunaferr is confident that they will turn the tablesaround this time.

Slagelse FH

Henrik Dudek, Manager ofSlagelse, could not believe that the “old” rivals will be backin Denmark again. He described Dunaferr as being a “special” opponentespecially after their experiences over the last two European seasons. Eventhough Slagelse beat Dunaferr on both occasions, they are for sure no easyopponent and are strong in their away matches – as was proved in thequarter-final clash against Viborg (where they won on 7 metre shots). Dudekshowed his respect for Dunaferr, complimenting them on their fantastic fans. Hesaid that the atmosphere in Dunaferr is always electric and the fans are always100% behind their team, so it will certainly be tough but they are puttingtheir hopes on defending their title –especially as they have the 2^ndleg home court advantage!

Hypo Niederösterreich

Gerard Berger, ClubRepresentative, took the draw against Kometal quite laid back.Hypo did not have a favourite opponent. All the teams are strong at this stage.Slagelse maybe has a slight advantage as the defending champion, but Bergerbasically believes that it will be an open race.

The Hypogirls are currently on an all time high and are hoping to get back the titleafter a 5 year break. They don’t seem to mind whether that they play the firstmatch at home. Since the renovation work at their home arena back in autumn,they haven’t lost a game yet – its certainly a “lucky” hall. The 2 000spectators are fired up to follow the team and the team certainly has a fightingspirit.

They arealso well experienced as far as the opponent is concerned. The won the titleback in 2000 in the hall in Skopje, so they look on this as being a lucky omen.There have also been some changes on the bench- Manager Gunnar Prokop, now doublesup as coach and is closely supported by Ferry Kovacs and the famous goalkeeper– Dshandshagava. Hypo believe that this is the winning mixture to take thetitle!.

Kometal GP Skopje: comments fromeurohandball.com’s Fyro Macedonian correspondent Goran Antevski:

Ivan Bojkov - Kometal GP President - "We're happy that we will play against Hypo. It's time to reconcile our scorefrom the past. So far we have won our home game four times but Hypo alwaysmanages to get through to the next round. Now it's time to change something.Our goal is to play in the finals. I hope Kometal GP will play against Slagelsein the final.

The defeats from 1993 and 1998 of 16 and 14 goalsare still painful. They are our worst results in CL and club history inEuropean Cups. In 2000 we played in the CL final but could not manage to reachthe 9 goal advantage from first game.

Kometal GP is not afraid of Hypo. We saw some oftheir games at Supercup in Germanyin December, and some in the CL. So far we have proved that we can play wellenough as guest as at home. We have more potential especially in attack. Ourdefence is the better part of team. We expect the "come back" of winger Oksana Raykhel after her kneesurgery.

The main problem for Kometal GP is how to satisfymore fans because the capacity is 2.500 seats in SRC Kale. The new sports hallwill be finished next year with 8.000 seats”.

Text: EHF

Kometal:Goran Antevski