Gran Canaria win final's first leg against Malaga

In the first leg of the EHF European Cup Women 2021/22 final, Rocasa Gran Canaria were dominant against fellow Spanish side Costa del Sol Malaga and ultimately won 21:17.

FINAL, FIRST LEG
Rocasa Gran Canaria (ESP) vs Costa del Sol Malaga (ESP) 21:17 (9:8)

• Isabelle Dos Santos opened the scoring for Malaga, but it was the visitors' only lead throughout the 60 minutes
• a 5:0 run spurred by Katarina Pavlovic saw Gran Canaria take an 8:3 lead in the 18th minute, but Malaga then improved their defence a lot and closed the gap to just one goal at the break
• Esperanza López Jiménez drew Malaga level at 9:9 after the restart, yet then Rocasa, helped by Silvia Navarro's saves, enjoyed a 4:0 run and kept their advantage afterwards
• Pavlovic finished the game as the top scorer with seven goals, a third of her team's tally, including four from the seven-metre line
• Soledad López Jiménez, Esperanza López Jiménez, Sara Bravo and Rocío Rojas netted three times each for Malaga

Malaga need to improve

While Gran Canaria won the Women's Challenge Cup in 2015/16 and 2018/19, Malaga triumphed in the inaugural EHF European Cup Women last year, and now they want to defend their title.

Revenge at home in the return leg on 14 May is certainly possible, but Malaga must improve their attack in order to achieve it. In Telde, the visitors did not show their firepower, they lacked precision and made too many mistakes, and although Rocasa were not brilliant either, 21 goals proved enough for the home side to earn a four-goal victory.