Györ cruise past Blomberg-Lippe again; Nykøbing and Podravka take revenge
Round 8 of the EHF Champions League Women 2026/27 started on Saturday with three matches in group B, all of them being the reverse fixtures of the games played a week before. In a Nordic clash, Nykøbing Falster Håndbold took a convincing revenge on Storhamar Håndball Elite, taking their just second win in the current tournament.
HC Podravka also enjoyed a revenge, ending Gloria Bistrita's winning streak, while Györi Audi ETO KC maintained their unbeaten record in the competition, earning a clear victory against HSG Blomberg-Lippe.
The match was defined by the fact that we made so many mistakes. We had 10 unforced errors in the first half alone, and Nykøbing capitalized on every opportunity. We were punished for that. It becomes difficult when we miss simple passes, we end up making things hard for ourselves.
Last weekend, I don’t feel we got things right defensively. We missed too many shots against Eli (Raasok) who is a fantastic goalkeeper. That happened today as well, of course, but our defensive play was much better. I am very happy with our performance. We needed to show that we can also succeed in the Champions League. Storhamar have performed very well in the Champions League, so we are proud to have come here and won.
I felt that our opponents came here without any fear, and they made things difficult for us for about 20 minutes. I started rotating the team already in the first half to give everyone an opportunity to play. Our defence worked particularly well in the second half, and we secured a big-margin victory, which perhaps was not something we could necessarily expect. We had a lot of good individual performances, and Thale played well, among others. I am proud of the team.
We played a good first half and started well, although we still made quite a few mistakes. After the break, however, our game fell apart, and we struggled to find the right solutions, while Györ punished every mistake. Our defence was not aggressive enough, especially in the second half. I am not satisfied with that, but we know that Györ are a good team, and I hope I will at least get to see them at the FINAL4 as a fan.
This is a win that opens up many possibilities. It shows that we were competitive against the current best team in the Romanian league—a side that remains undefeated domestically and has won every match in the Champions League, save for away games against Győr and Metz. For the most part—even when we were trailing by just one goal in the 47th minute—the match contained several aspects I wasn't happy with, specifically two instances involving red cards—disqualifications—resulting from challenges on my players. Today, however, things balanced out. Thanks primarily to our attack, we didn't allow Bistrița to pull away by a larger margin in the first half. With Anica entering the game—complemented by several saves from Lucija—we managed to close the gap; it’s almost surreal that we reached a tie, even conceding a goal right at the final buzzer. In the second half, we caught them off guard—to put it modestly—by employing a 5-1 defensive formation, for which we had given specific instructions to Ana Pandža.
Congratulations to Podravka. They have a good team in attack, for us it's impossible to play in defence with these players because in the one-on-one we lost all situations. But okay, we need to improve in defence, for the future. Sure, we are tired because the competition in Romania is strong, the trip for us always is the same. It's not easy to go other countries and in the Champions League always is the same situation where we are very tired. We will go to the next game and give it all.
