Monday night was a marvellous night for Krim Mercator. The Slovenian club xdestroyedx Danish Aalborg on their home ground. With a superb defence and an unbeatable Luminita Dinu Krim Mercator are one step closer to a new Champions League final...

PRINT VERSION:

Monday night was a marvellous night for Krim Mercator. The Slovenian club “destroyed” Danish Aalborg on their home ground. With a superb defence and an unbeatable Luminita Dinu Krim Mercator are one step closer to a new Champions League final.

Superb defence
Aalborg started the match on their home ground in Jutland without Rokne and Nielsen what seemed to be a key point for the match.

Krim coach Tone Tiselj had decided for a 5-1 defensive formation which created many problems for Aalborg, which was first able to score in the 8th minute – after a penalty shoot.

Superb and effective defence gave Krim an early three goals lead (7th minute) and with goals from Maryna Vergelyuk and Natalya Derepasko the gap constantly grew bigger. Even a time out by Aalborg did not bring any relief to the Danish team. The Slovenes were simply better.

Little chance for scoring
The first half was disastrous for the Champions League debutants – they only scored seven times (two goals from a penalty shoot). Playmaker Kristine Lunde was stopped far away from the seven meter line and also Narcisa Lecusanu was not able to send the ball behind Luminita Dinu's back. The first half ended 7:12.

Minus two was the closest the Danes could get
After the break the home team started a little bit stronger, especially goalkeeper Katrine Lunde, who saved some difficult shots from Krim's players. On the other side the Slovenes loosened a bit and allowed Aalborg to come to minus two (39th minute).

But experience and determination decided the match. Even though both teams were fighting all 60 minutes, Krim Ljubljana was always one step ahead. Dalmose's tactics with a defensive 6-0 formation did not bring the result as he wanted.

The biggest problem was his team's offensive play against the Slovene defence. An eight goals advantage is a marvellous result before Sunday’s return match in Slovenia and it is obvious that Krim is one big step closer to their fifth final in the Champions League.

What went wrong for Aalborg?
“We had big problems with our defence and Liudmila Bodnieva. Krim is playing handball with a lot of physical contacts. We were not able to cope with this. Besides that Krim has 14 equal players we have less, which is also an important point,” Aalborg's coach Christian Dalmose said after the match.

On the other side Krim's coach Tone Tiselj was happy with his team's performance: “You could see how much energy we put into this match. Aalborg is a quality team and they could easily punish our mistakes. That is why we had to be concentrated all 60 minutes and not relax for a second. I think that Rokne's absence was very important for Aalborg. We have a good advantage but nothing can be left to coincidence before the return match.”

The second leg match between Krim Mercator and Aalborg DH will be played on Sunday 23 April in Ljublana.


Text: Maja Mastnak, SiOL-Sportal