IHF Eight teams progress for the EHF European League Women& ...

Three German teams, two teams from Romania and one from France, Denmark and Spain each made the quarter-finals of the EHF European League Women, finishing on the top two places in each of the four groups played in the group stage of the second-tier European competition.

From the four German sides taking part, three qualified and two of them secured the first place in their groups, earning an important advantage, a home match in the second leg of the quarter-finals, as both HSG Blomberg-Lippe and HSG Bensheim-Auerbach Flames dominated their opponents, with the latter side being the only one to clinch six wins in the six matches.

HSG Bensheim-Auerbach Flames, which played in Group D, had the best record in the group stage, with six wins out of six matches, dominating their opponents, yet two of their wins, both against the second-placed side in the group, Super Amara Bera Bera, came by two goals.

Nina Engel was HSG Bensheim-Auerbach Flames’ top scorer, with 41 goals, but the German side also had a meaningful contribution from beach handball star Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar, who had 30 goals in the six matches.

The toughest group of the competition was Group B, won by SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea, as the Romanian side secured the first place with one round to spare, after securing four wins in the first five matches.

Surprisingly, the only German team to be eliminated at the start of the competition was BV Borussia Dortmund, which lost the away match against Vâlcea, with their last win against Norwegian side Sola HK, 29:28, failing to help Dortmund meet the cut.

The other qualified team from Group B was Danish powerhouse Ikast Handbold, which, despite missing the top goal scorer of the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship, Czech left back Marketa Jerabkova, finished second, after beating Vâlcea in the last match, 36:34.

In Group A, a last-gasp goal from HC Dunărea Brăila in the last match, a 33:33 draw against Larvik HK, helped the Romanian side win their group, with one point ahead another German side, Thüringer HC, which qualified thanks to their 27:26 win against ATTICGO BM Elche in the last round.

Thüringer, which have the top goal scorer of the competition so far, Johanna Reichert, with 68 goals, two more than Sola’s Malin Holta and Larvik’s Maja Furu Saeteren, will face Vâlcea in the quarter-finals, in a battle which will see the German side’s coach, Herbert Muller, face a former foe from the Romanian league, as he was born in Romania.

In Group C, HSG Blomberg-Lippe made it through from the first place in the group, but the battle for the second place went to the wire, as JDA Bourgogne Dijon Handball and KGHM MKS Zaglebie Lubin had the same number of points, six.

With a 32:24 win in the last match, avenging their 27:29 home loss, Dijon made it through to the next phase, but will face the unbeaten HSG Bensheim-Auerbach Flames in the quarter-finals, while Blomberg play against Bera Bera in the quarter-finals.

The quarter-finals, scheduled for 22/23 and 29/30 March, will see the winners progress to the EHF Finals Women, due to take place in May, in Graz, Austria.

EHF European League Women 2024/25 – quarter-finals

Ikast Handbold (DEN) vs HC Dunărea Brăila (ROU)Thüringer HC (GER) vs SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea (ROU)Super Amara Bera Bera (ESP) vs HSG Blomberg-Lippe (GER)JDA Bourgogne Dijon Handball (FRA) vs HSG Bensheim-Auerbach Flames (GER)

Credit photo: SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea