After the first leg match of the 2005/2006 Women's Champions League finals between Krim Ljubljana and Viborg HK eurohandball.com asked Bert Bouwer for his expert analysis of the game...

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After the first leg match of the 2005/2006 Women's Champions League finals between Krim Ljubljana and Viborg HK eurohandball.com asked Bert Bouwer for his expert analysis of the game.

Viborg HK
In the last months Viborg HK has gone through a great development. Players who were injured are back in the team and there is a good balance on all the positions in the team. To bring so many good players together and create such a team spirit is a good job from the team management.

The strong side of Viborg is that they can easily change from a more static way of playing to a dynamic handball system.

Especially the left back players (Rikke Skov and Chao Zhai) and the players on the right back (Grit Jurack and Isabel Ortuño) can help switch the way of playing. Skov with a good distance shot and a strong body for one-on-one situations and Zhai with her very quick changes of direction create many problems for the defence.

If you then have line players such as Lene Lund Nielsen, Charlotte Højfeldt and Olga Assink then you have a strong connection between the first and second line players.

A “specialty” of this team is the centre back position with Heidi Astrup with her experience and overview; on top comes her skill to connect the left and right side of the Viborg team, which puts this team into a good balance.

Yet a team in the Champions League finals also needs good wings and goalkeepers. With wing players like Henriette Mikkelsen and Cristina Varzaru you have players who belong to the top 10 in the world.

With a very stable goalkeeper such as Louise Bager Nørgaard every trainer is a happy person, but if you also have Valerie Nicolas in top form after her knee problems then you have every option as a coach to play beautiful handball.

Krim Ljubljana
The team from the Slovenian capital is a team with a strong influence from Ukrainian and Russian players – which also makes the team play that style of handball.

Players such as Marina Vergelyuk and Ganna Siukalo are strong players who are very good in one-on-one situations. The game of Krim is not based on many different tactics but rather on playing simply strong and with a high performance. Not many combinations, but 100% quality.

With Luminita Dinu they have a goalkeeper with world class talent - she gives the Slovenian team an extra dimension. And, let’s not forget that the Krim team over the years has gathered a lot of experience in playing games on this level.

The first leg match
Viborg started off the match a little nervous and the home team took an early lead quite easily.

After 10-15 minutes Viborg started using their strong weapons: The 1st and 2nd phase was played easily and Krim was not good at following the fast way of playing. After some hard defence scenes both teams gradually started playing their own style of handball.

Offence performance
Krim was playing their regular systems bringing Derepasko in position to shoot and find Bodnieva on the line. No other Krim player was actually shooting from the second line; Marina Vergelyuk was focussing more on one-on-one situations. Bodnieva and Yatsenko had many problems with the Viborg goalkeeper as Valerie Nicolas was in super form.

Viborg made their presence felt as they began to dominate the match; the first and second phase was getting stronger and in the third phase they kept Krim under pressure. Chao Zhai was in great shape leading her team to a strong performance.

A big problem for the Krim defence was the fact that many Viborg players were shooting from the distance. Zhai, Skov, Jurack, Ortuño and Astrup showed some great distance shots.

Defence performance
In my opinion both defences were very strong, yet sometimes a little too hard. Viborg with a very strong 6:0 defence; Krim starting with a 6:0 and later changing to a more open defence (5:1/4:2).

The end result of 22:24 puts Viborg in a good position to win their first Champions League title next week; especially because they are playing the return match at home. Their fast and dynamic way off playing gives them good possibilities to surprise Krim.

However, Krim is a mentally strong team and can maybe surprise everybody in the return match!

Finally, I can see how handball is developing into a professional and very attractive sport. I am glad to work within this sport.

Good luck to Viborg and Krim - you both deserve this super final.

Bert Bouwer


Personal profile
During his active career Bert Bouwer went all the way from mini handball player to playing 140 matches in the Dutch national team. After his playing career the 54-year old Dutchman went into coaching, among other teams heading the Dutch and the Japanese women’s national teams.

On a club level Bouwer has been coaching in the Netherlands and in Denmark, where he is now responsible for the talent development in the Danish club GOG Svendborg.

Bert Bouwer is an EHF Lecturer.


Text: Bert Bouwer/EHF