Burlachenko overcomes “toughest moments of my life”

Burlachenko had one of her best games of the season last weekend, when she scored five goals – all of them in the first half – against Sola HK. It helped Baia Mare to a superb 40:32 win in the first leg of the European League quarter-finals.

The return game is scheduled for Sunday at 16:00 CEST (live on EHFTV).

“It was a perfect game for me. Remember, we also won big against another Norwegian opponent, Storhamar Elite HK, last season, so CS Minaur Baia Mare like to play against this type of teams,” Burlachenko says.

“As the season grew older and older, I think we started to build some chemistry in the team and everything got better and better.”

Still, few expected Baia Mare to open an eight-goal gap ahead against Sola, a team that won all the six games in the group phase and scored 196 goals while being impossible to stop at times.

Even the top scorer of the competition, left wing Camilla Herrem, was stopped in her tracks, being limited to only four goals in the first leg, after putting 49 past the opponent goalkeepers in the group phase.

The result was even more surprising regarding the fact that the Romanian side, who qualified for the EHF Finals Women last season, were the team with the lowest number of points – five – of the teams that advanced from the group phase, and had scored only 154 goals in the first six matches.

“Never say never. We are using this phrase so many times, it has become a cliché. But it truly fits our situation now, because we did not play very good in the group phase and we achieved this great win,” adds Burlachenko in a perfect-pitch Romanian, learnt after spending seven years in the country with HC Danubius Galati, SCM Craiova, HCM Slobozia and CS Minaur Baia Mare.

The 40:32 win against Sola not only boosted Baia Mare’s hopes to progress to the EHF Finals again, it also improved the confidence of the team.

Earlier Baia Mare suffered their worst loss in a European competition with a 19-goal drubbing against SG BBM Bietigheim (39:20). They also failed to impress in the Romanian league, sitting fifth and trailing leaders Rapid by 12 points after 19 games.

A berth for the EHF Finals would save the season, which was marred by nagging injuries and a busy transfer period last summer that saw a plethora of names added to the squad to replace the ones who left the side.

“We will be fighting for every ball, from the first minute until the end. Sola are a very young team, but we know the difference between how the Norwegian teams play away and how they play at home,” Burlachenko says.

“They will bring the speed and the energy from the throw-off and we need to be confident, never let them create a big gap and then be patient and score on every chance we have.”

Saturday’s impressive win was also important for the line player’s confidence. Born and bred in Kyiv, Burlachenko saw the spots she grew up in torn apart, as her family was still in the Ukrainian capital.

As one of the most important Romanian-Ukrainian borders is just 60 kilometers away from Baia Mare, Burlachenko volunteered there, helping Ukrainian refugees get safe passage to Romania.

Conversations with family have also been difficult, as the situation has been tense for the past 40 days, with the line player dreading every call received.

“Sometimes it is better, sometimes it is worse. When I get on the phone with my family, they say they still see rockets in the air, and they go directly to the shelter. It is difficult to focus on handball when you hear something like that,” she says.

“I feel like a robot at times, at training sessions. I have been playing handball for a long, long time now and all the mechanisms are in my head: I know where I need to stand, how I need to catch the ball and where I need to shoot,” says the Ukrainian line player.

While handball may be cathartic, Baia Mare’s captain still finds herself at a loss.

“This are the toughest moments of my life. It is difficult to grasp, but I am just keeping on, helping my team and myself,” she says. “I do not know how I am doing it.”