Kristiansen powers Györ past Metz

It was the first DELO EHF Champions League match for both teams in 2022, and group B leaders Györi Audi ETO KC claimed a confident win against Metz Handball, 39:30.

GROUP B
Györi Audi ETO KC (HUN) vs Metz Handball (FRA) 39:30 (20:13)

• Györ enjoyed a brilliant start, leading 6:2 in the 8th minute and 11:3 midway through the first half
• Tamara Horacek's string of penalty goals helped Metz to close the gap to 15:10, but the home side comfortably led by seven goals at the break
• in a more balanced second half, Györ hit the 30-goal mark in the 49th minute, as Nadine Schatzl made the score 30:22
• her teammate Veronica Kristiansen stood out with her performance, scoring 10 goals from 11 attempts. Horacek was Metz's best scorer with eight goals
• for the third-placed Metz, it was the first defeat away from home in the current competition

Who will stop Györ?

The Hungarian heavyweights, who won all their eight games in the competition before the New Year, continued where they had left off, as a win against Metz helped them to maintain a perfect record.

Although Györ faced one of their strongest rivals in the group, home team showed their power since the opening minutes, defending well and scoring both from fast breaks and positional attacks. There is little doubt that the Hungarian team will win the group, and the big question is whether any team will stop them on the way to the title.

Post-match quotes

Ambros Martin, Györ's coach: "We can perform even better if we have pressure on, we could fight and everybody could contribute to the performance. Metz were fighting really hard, and I also want to say thank you to the team, because I could finally feel again which I really missed. And of course I would like to say thank you to all of the staff members, without them we couldn’t be able to win today. We need to recover now and be ready for the upcoming matches."

Veronica Kristiansen, Györ's left back: "I feel from the players point of view, we were nervous because we have a lot of missing players and we knew that Metz are really a strong team. We said to each other in the locker room already, that we are able to do it. I want to say thank you to our fans, because they made a really good atmosphere in the arena. I am really proud of my team."

Emmanuel Mayonnade, Metz's coach: "First of all congratulation to the performance of Györ. The beginning was not good for us, we didn't play as we expected to play, the opponents were really good even if they had missing players, and it was not possible for us to win but we tried to fight. I hope we will have the opportunity to play against Györ in the FINAL4 again."

Ivana Kapitanovic, Metz's goalkeeper: "There were some moments which seemed to be that we can come back, but we had a lot of mistakes and had to fight with ourselves and with the opponent team. I am sure that we will do everything to be able to meet Györ again during the season."