Metz grab a point against Storhamar; Odense and Rapid clinch home wins
Round 1 of the EHF Champions League Women 2024/25 continued on Sunday with the clash between Storhamar Handball Elite and Metz Handball. After an action-packed end of the match, Metz managed to grab one point from the draw in Norway, with the help of their young star Léna Grandveau.
Odense Håndbold and Rapid Bucuresti protected their home court, taking clear wins against HB Ludwigsburg and Buducnost, respectively, and enjoying a fantastic start to the season in the top-flight competition.
The second half was very good. In the first half I think Metz had the game. We struggled a lot in everything. I think they got seven penalties in the first half and they were all over the place and we had big trouble. In the second half we played very well. One point against Metz is very big for us. So I am very happy.
Of course, we are disappointed that we didn’t win. But we did everything we could in the first match of the EHF Champions League. We knew before the match that Storhamar are a strong team. They won against Vipers last week, and they won the EHF European League, so we knew that this match wouldn’t be easy.
We have to try to fight all the games and win as much as possible, all the points, if we want to be in the next round in this really, really tough group in the EHF Champions League. So I'm really satisfied, I'm really happy for the team, how they worked.
We knew that it would be very hard on their home court, that they have a very good atmosphere and honestly I like that very much. We knew that this game would be hard and also all the games that are coming this season, but we will go step by step and we will try to take out the maximum from our team.
Everything can always be better. But I am really happy for the win. Especially with our defensive performance, where I think we were very good most of the game. Then we were not that good at finding solutions in offence, but overall a good win.
It was a tough one... they played very well and had a very strong defence. I don't think we ever were that close and Odense deserved to win. I think we played a good first half actually. But in the second we struggled to score and after that it was tough.
