Sports weekend
The latest from women's handball
Eugen Nasta, 10.01.2025, 13:45
The international women’s handball inter-club competition season will be resumed at the weekend. Three Romanian teams compete in the Champions League. In Group B, Rapid Bucharest on Sunday play French opponents Brest Bretagne, away. Rapid are not the favorites for the group-winner position, given that Brest Bretagne stand real chances to be at the top of the table or second-placed in Group B, thus booking their ticket for a straight participation to the quarterfinals.
Brest Bretagne are now 4th-placed in the Group, with 10 points in five wins. With three points, Rapid are 7th-placed, the last-but-one position in Group B. Rapid’s record is made of one win, one draw and six defeats, according to the fixtures they’ve played so far. We recall in October in Bucharest Brest Bretagne won, 34 to 31.
In Group A, the first team to resume participation in the League is Gloria Bistriţa-Năsăud. Head-coached by Florentin Pera, who is also the head-coach of the national team, Gloria take on Norway’s Storhamar on home turf, this coming Saturday. Gloria and Storhamar are placed in Group A’s lower echelon. With a mere four points in eight games, Gloria are 7th-placed, the last-but-one position in the group. Storhamar are 6th-placed, having one point more than Gloria.
The direct match pitting Gloria against Storhamar in Norway, in October, 2024, made the difference since Storhamar won, 25-23. We recall that in May 2024 Gloria Bistrita and Storhamar played the EHF European League final. Back then Storhamar won, 29 to 27.
CSM Bucharest is the other Romanian team playing in the Champions League’s Group A. This coming Sunday, CSM play an away game against top-of-the-table team Metz Handball of France. In Bucharest, Metz won by the narrowest of margins, 31 to 30. Metz are the only team with a win-all record in the League’s ongoing season. CSM had a rather bumpy run this past fall.
With four wins and four defeats and 8 points, CSM are 4th-placed, on a par with 3rd-placed team, Krim Ljubljana. We recall that after 14 rounds of the group phase, the first two teams in each group advance to the quarterfinals. 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th-placed teams will engage in playoff matches in a bid to secure a place in the quarterfinals, while 7th and 8th-placed teams will be eliminated.
The EHF European League group fixtures are also scheduled at the weekend. On Saturday, in Group A, Dunărea Brăila play a home game against Spanish opponents Elche. The other Group A teams are Germany’s Thüringer and Norwegian squad Larvik. The other Romanian team, SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea, on Sunday play an away Group B game against Germany’s Borussia Dortmund. Also part of the League’s Group B are Ikast of Denmark and Sola of Norway.
