WOMEN’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMIFINAL: HYPO v KOMETAL

The first leg of the Women's semifinal on Fridayevening between Hypo Niederösterreich and Kometal Djorce Petrov Skopje was theopener for the Champions League weekend. This clash brought old rivals togetherand it was a chance for both teams to go to a Champions League final againafter a long absence.

After previous incidents at former matches betweenthe two teams, there was quite an amount of tension in the air; however, thegame was carried out in a positive atmosphere without any disturbance at all.

A large group of Kometal fans travelling all the wayfrom Skopje cheered their team during the entire 60 minutes and there was not asingle free seat anywhere in the hall.

The home team was the first to find their rhythm andtook a 10:5 lead after 14 min. Kometal coach Viktor Portnoj utilised histeam-time-out, but it didn’t help too much. Two successful 7-metres byChampions League top-scorer Tanja Logvin put Hypo 13:7 in front, which wouldprove to be the biggest gap of the game. Finally the guests found some answersand a 4-0 series by Kometal brought the result back in balance for at least afew minutes.

Of course, Hypo’s coach Gunnar Prokop had some acesleft and his team struck back to finally take a five-goal lead into the halftime, taking advantage of a missed penalty by Skopje’s Olga Bujanova.

Kometal Skopje, Champions League winner of 2000, hadthe better start to the second half and especially 25-year old Turkish playerYezil Özel delivered a top performance during the entire second half. Theguests reduced the deficit to two goals after just 6 minutes much to thedelight of their fans all dressed in the club’s colours green and yellow.

A more flexible defensive system from coach Portnojmade it more and more difficult for Hypo to score and a few good saves bygoalkeeper Natalya Borisenko did the rest to prevent the home team from takingany considerable lead.

Even though there were enough chances on both sides,there were also enough easy mistakes by both teams and the goal differenceremained between plus two and plus four for the home team all the way to theend with Kometal’s pivot Anzela Platon scoring the last goal of the match justseconds prior to the final whistle.

Understandably, the home team was not too happy withthe result of 32:30, as they were leading by more goals during most parts ofthe game. However, Kometal’s experience and their strong self confidence afterhaving eliminated last year’s runners-up Krim Ljubljana in the quarterfinalshelped them to stay in the game and return home with a comfortable result.

No doubt, the “Kale” hall in Skopje will be on firenext Saturday for the second leg and Hypo will need a top performance toqualify for their first final in five years.

Text: EHF