RRI Sports Club

Florin Orban, 10.04.2019, 13:39

The Romanian
women’s handball champions CSM Bucharest are facing a difficult match on
Saturday, when they take on the French side Metz in the Champions League
quarterfinals. In the first leg held last Friday in Bucharest, Metz won 31 to
26, which means that CSM now have to win by a 6 goal-difference to make it into
the next round. This seems like an impossible mission, especially if we take
into account CSM’s modest run more recently. If they fail to qualify for the
Final 4, this would be a first for CSM in the last four years. They won the
competition in 2016 and were in the final in 2017 and 2018.

CSM’s players Cristina
Neagu and Amanda Kurtovic, who are injured, will not recover in time for
Saturday’s match. Neagu’s absence in recent matches has been felt by the team.
Since she got injured last December during the European Championship in France,
CSM have only won two Champions League matches, so they now rank fourth in Main
Round Group 2. To make it to the Final 4, CSM will thus have to face the French
side Metz Handball, who have won the Main Round Group 1 after a series of
outstanding matches.

CMS are not
doing very well in the domestic championship, either, and they might well lose
the title this year. They are now second in the National League standing, three
points behind SCM Ramnicu Valcea. However, CSM have played 19 matches and
Ramnicu Valcea 20. In head-to-head matches, the wins are evenly split: Ramnicu
Valcea won 22 to 19 in Bucharest in October, while CSM won 30 to 29 in Ramnic
in March.