ELDA LEFT THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WITHOUT A VICTORY Orsan Elda Prestigio and Viborg Handbold Klub played the last match of the first phase of Champions League without any pressure. The Spaniards were looking for their first win in their goodbye and the Danes did not have much to play for as they had already qualified to the 1/4 finals because Krim had beaten Larvik the day before.
The Spanish coach Angel Sandoval had two players injured: goalkeeper Aitziber Elejaga and right wing Martina Knytlova. On other hand, Susana Fraile played but had a hard time with her shot attempts. At the end of the first half Elda and Viborg were tied (14:14).
Beginning of second half decisive
The first 15 minutes of the second half were decisive, Viborg was very efficient with 13 goals in 15 minutes and Elda was very “cold”, with a low level in throws and a very weak defence. VHK build up a big lead - nine goals (18-27) - and decided the match. Elda improved the result in the last five minutes and lost only by three goals.
The Swedish coach of Viborg, Tomas Ryde, let all his players play (except Chinese Chao Zhai) and tried out several things, e.g. Trine Troelsen as left back, Grit Jurack as playmaker etc.
The main attraction of the match was Isabel Ortuño, the Spanish left handed player of Viborg, who came back to Elda playing for a Danish team. Isabel played worse than in the first match against Elda in Viborg but had a lot of fans in the hall.
“It was impossible to win this match”
Angel Sandoval, Spanish coach, said: "My team was very “cold” in the first minutes of the second half, perhaps because Fraile couldn’t throw more due to her injure. So for my team it was impossible to win this match, because Viborg was in a 6-0 defence and without Fraile, we did not have good attacking options.”
Tomas Ryde, Viborg’s coach, declared: "Today we played a friendly match, now we are expecting Slagelse in the 1/4 finals; it isn’t impossible beat them, we are playing better and better and I hope we might be very strong for these matches. In the last match against Anja’s team we played quite well and we have got chances to beat Slagelse".
Isabel Ortuño commented after the match: "It was a strange match because Viborg did not have anything to play for in this match. I was quite surprised because there were very few supporters in the hall - in Elda there are usually always 1.200/1.500 spectators in the hall for Champions League matches.”
She continued: “We played quite relaxed because we have anything to play for. In the 1/4 finals we are going to play against Slagelse, it´s a very good team, perhaps the best team in Europe and in the world, but Slagelse isn’t unbeatable. We can win against all the teams if we play well".
Elda finished the Champions League being the only team in group A that did not win any matches.
