It looks like a mission impossible, when Danish Champions League debutants Aalborg DH go to Ljubljana to try and catch up with the 8 goal lead Krim Mercator Ljubljana has after the first leg of the semifinals...

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It looks like a mission impossible, when Danish Champions League debutants Aalborg DH go to Ljubljana to try and catch up with the 8 goal lead Krim Mercator Ljubljana has after the first leg of the semifinals.

Krim’s 24:16 win in Aalborg Monday this week has practically decided the semifinal tie between the Slovenian champions and the Danish team, who have otherwise done so fine in their first Champions League appearance ever. Very few teams even manage to win in the Slovenian capital, so a 9 goal win for Aalborg Sunday afternoon actually seems quite unrealistic.

Handicap is too big
Krim appeared to be too strong for Aalborg even in the Gigantium Arena in Aalborg, and Aalborg DH was too handicapped to really offer any resistance. And the Danish team will be just as handicapped in the second match.

As previously reported on eurohandball.com, Danish national team player Rikke Nielsen is out with an injured thumb for the rest of the season, and Norwegian national team player Marianne Rokne has still not returned up in the club. This leaves Aalborg coach Christian Dalmose with extremely few options in the back court line - and with very few possibilities to make substitutions at all.

Still an important match
"Of course, it does not seem realistic to win by nine goals in Ljubljana, but we will simply have to play the match and see, how it turns out" said left winger Louise Mortensen, who has also had to play in the back court line lately due to the lack of back court players in the team.

Right winger Louise Pedersen, who became her team’s top scorer with 7 goals in the first match, can at least see an area, where Aalborg can improve.

"In the first match we were not good enough at finding solutions against their physically strong defence. We will have to be better at that down there" found Louise Pedersen, while coach Christian Dalmose demands, that the attitude at least is okay in the second match.

"It is not just some inferior cup game, we are going to play! It is the semifinal in the Champions League, so we will simply have to rise to the occasion! We all know that we can do better than we did in the first match!" said Dalmose.


Text: Peter Bruun