The previous year, Vyakhireva also won the title for the first time in her career, with Vipers Kristiansand. But this summer, the 29-year-old right back moved to her second foreign club in her career, Brest Bretagne Handball.
“My first months in Brest were quite nice and hard at the same time. Adaptation is always hard, especially going from one country to another, but I feel good here,” says Vyakhireva.
The summer was a busy one for Brest, with 10 players leaving, as well as coach Pablo Morel, who moved to coach Romanian club Gloria Buzau. In came Raphaëlle Tervel, herself a debutant in the EHF Champions League Women.
Despite all the changes, Brest have delivered some entertaining matches so far. The French side has the best attack in the competition, with 232 goals scored after seven rounds. They have won five of the seven matches played so far, losing one of them, against reigning champions Györi Audi ETO KC, by a single goal.
“I don’t think we have any secrets, we just try to give our all every game. Maybe it’s also good that our team is quite new, so for opponents it’s not that easy to adapt to us, to what we play, but that’s just a theory,” adds Vyakhireva.
Brest have constantly been one of the tougher outfits to win against in the previous seasons of the EHF Champions League Women, but they have not made the EHF FINAL4 in Budapest since 2020/21, when they beat Györ in the semi-finals before losing to Vipers in the final.
The plan is to get back among the top teams in Europe. Brest have been impressive with their attack, constantly finding ways to beat the opponents’ defences. In fact, the French side is the only team in the competition to have scored at least 30 goals in each of the seven matches played so far.
