Debrecen win overtime thriller to claim EHF Youth Club Trophy

The best DVSC players were goalkeeper Vivien Tábit (18 saves) and top scorer Vera Takács, who scored 13 times in the final. CSM left back Maria Sprîncenatu was top scorer of the final tournament with 21 goals, while Takács deservedly received the MVP award.

Two more Hungarian sides met in the 3/4 placement match, where Györi ETO KC beat FTC 34:24.

Final

CSM Bucuresti (ROU) vs DVSC Kézilabda Akadémia (HUN) 39:41 (13:13, 33:33)

Top scorers: Mara Iliesci 8/8 (CSM Bucuresti), Vera Takács 13/13 (DVSC Kézilabda Akadémia)

By far the best players of the first half were the goalkeepers: Vivien Tábit (DVSC) saved nine shots, Alexia Chiru (CSM) seven. Backed by hundreds of fans in the MVM Dome, CSM started well, leading 7:4 after just over 16 minutes. But boosted by Tábit, the Hungarian side managed to come back, taking the lead in the 23rd minute after a 5:1 run. DVSC managed to stop Maria Sprîncenatu, who had scored 15 goals in the semi against Györ, for a long time.

After an equal half-time score, Debrecen profited from Tábit’s impressive performance and crucial strikes by Vera Takács to pull ahead to their first three-goal margin for the first time at 20:17. And as CSM caused too many mistakes in attack, the gap increased to six goals with seven minutes left, when Takács netted for 31:25.

But like in their semi-final, when they turned an eight-goal deficit into the ticket to the final, CSM never gave up. Backed by the incredible support of their fans and goalkeeper Chiru, the Romanian side put Debrecen under pressure, going on a 5:0 run in four minutes to bring the score to 30:31 with less than four minutes to play. Two goals from DVSC were not enough to secure victory, with three unanswered goals by CSM were capped off with Maria Antonescu’s equaliser two seconds before the end.

Debrecen started the overtime with a 3:0 run, with Tábit still on form, and with a four-goal lead after eight minutes of the period, the Hungarian side could celebrate the trophy.

3/4 placement match

Györi ETO KC (HUN) vs FTC (HUN) 34:24 (18:12)

Top scorers: Nelli Pintér, Vanessza Imre, Hanna Molnár 5 (all Györi ETO KC), Laura Tarjányi 8 (FTC)

After both sides dramatically lost their semi-finals on Saturday, Györ took a clear win in the all-Hungarian classico against their arch-rivals from Ferencvaros. Until the 16th minute and the score of 8:8, the match was equal, then Györ pulled ahead goal by goal to a 18:12 half-time lead, including a 7:2 run in the last 10 minutes.

Right after the break, FTC managed to get closer to only three goals, but by the start of the last quarter, Györ were leading 25:18. At 30:20 the margin was in the double digits for the first time. A total of 11 players scored for Györ, topped by the trio of Nelli Pintér, Vanessza Imre and Hanna Molnár (all on five goals), while Dorka Borbás and Laura Tarjányi combined for 13 of 24 FTC strikes.

Photos © kolektiff images