It was third time lucky for Dijon, who had met Blomberg already twice before this season, with their German opponents winning both their duels in the group phase: 35:30 in Germany and 28:27 in France, when Nieke Kühne netted 10 times in each match.
The EHF Finals Women 2025 at Raiffeisen Sportpark in Graz conclude at 18:00 CEST with the big final between Ikast Håndbold and Thüringer HC.
THIRD-PLACE MATCH
HSG Blomberg-Lippe (GER) vs JDA Bourgogne Dijon Handball (FRA) 27:32 (10:16)
- Dijon showed their motivation to win this match right from the start, taking a 4:1 lead within five minutes
- the margin was still three when Claire Vautier netted her fifth of the match for 10:7 after 19 minutes
- that goal was part of a decisive 7:0 series, which helped Dijon extend their lead from 8:7 to 15:7
- Blomberg kept going for it in the second half, and reduced the deficit even to a single goal several times, but never got past Dijon
- best scorers were Claire Vautier with eight goals for Dijon, and Ona Vegue with seven for Blomberg
Red-hot Claire Vautier leads Dijon to bronze medal
The final tournament of a European club competition is always full of surprises, and JDA Bourgogne Dijon Handball’s Claire Vautier certainly had not expected that her first EHF Finals Women would pan out the way it did this weekend in Graz. In Saturday’s semi-final against Thüringer HC, Vautier was the leading scorer for her team with five goals until she was sent off with a red card with still 18 minutes left to play.
But in Sunday’s third-place match against another German side, HSG Blomberg-Lippe, Vautier made her presence on court felt again right away when she scored five times in less than 20 minutes to help Dijon to a healthy lead. In the end Dijon won 32:27 and Vautier, who has been playing for the club since 2020, contributed eight goals to raise her season tally to 41 since the start of the group phase.
