The Astroc team is 120 minutes away from a historical event; making it to the final of the Champions League. This is the second semifinal for the Spanish players in the month of April and Cristina Mayo's devotees will try to show off their...

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The Astroc team is 120 minutes away from a historical event; making it to the final of the Champions League. This is the second semifinal for the Spanish players in the month of April and Cristina Mayo’s devotees will try to show off their excellence so that in this occasion luck can be on their side in spite of the strength of their rival and the difficulties that represents arriving to the top of the Champions League.

Astroc working hard to get ready
The rhythm established during the trainings and the psychological work carried out by the coaches during these past weeks could begin to give positive results next Saturday afternoon. The Spanish players as well as the Danish players from Viborg HK are playing it all on one card; no doubt it will be an exciting game.

Lene Tobiasen (DEN), the last player that has signed with Astroc - but who won’t be able to play in this Champions League game - confirmed that her fellow citizens from Viborg are a “very strong team”; but at the same time she sentenced that “they are not invincible and we have many options to win”.

The Danish player passed first hand information regarding their rival to the Valencia team; not in vain, Tobiasen has just finished playing the season in her country and has played against them on many occasions.

Semifinal comes at a difficult time
The Champions League semifinal comes at a difficult time for the Astroc team after having been defeated in the Spanish Cup in the same round. However, the elimination in León could be an extra incentive in the match against Viborg.

There is no special motivation needed to play the Champions as Cristina Mayo mentioned, but the team is willing to conjugate to recuperate the great handball afternoons and the European epics of present and previous years. The Spanish coach hopes that her players can offer the spirit and the capacity of sacrifice that they have showed up to now in the previous rounds of a tournament in which they were playing their best.

Heidi Astrup a highlight in the Viborg team
Heidi Astrup is a highlight in the team coached by the Swedish Tomas Ryde. She is amongst the top ten scorers in the competition with 41 goals, 10 of which were scored in the final quarters against Slagelse DT. Other top scorers are the Rumanian Cristina Varzaru with 33 goals, and not to forget the player from Alicante, Isabel Ortuño, team mate of most of the Astroc players in the Spanish national team.

Hoping for new spectator record
The playing hall René Marigil hopes to accommodate the largest number of spectators of its history after the refurbishing works that have taken place to host the semifinals of the most important European club competition.

The referees assigned to the match are Bebojsa Grkovic and Zoran Tijanic, from Serbia and Montenegro.


Text: Albert Vidal Queralt