betprepare.com

I think Midtjylland will win this trophy, for many reasons. They're playing this second best European cup only because of one bad day at the qualifying tournament for the Champions League in Kragujevac, even though they deserve at least a Final Four with their quality, which they played last season. After winning the Danish cup by the end of 2014, they got only one defeat this year, and are in a 17-matches winning streak in two fronts. They're playing two big finals next week. They've got seven players who played European championship by the end of 2014, they've got quality at every line, and the goalie Englert who is one of the best in the last years, and the best defense of the Danish championship. With the results in this cup, I think Fleury didn't have a real rival till this final. They beat the Russian Zvezda and the Austrian Hypo who are at least one level of quality below what they had last years. Midtjylland easily beat the Polish Lublin who played the group phase of the CL and the Hungarian Ferencvaros in the semifinal, another team who deserve the European Top 10 position. I expect them to get a result today that will take them to the final of this cup. Details

I think this final is a 50-50. I lean towards Holstebro winning because they're playing against Rostov in the first final match. Rostov played a return fixture of the Russian championship playoff final against Lada on Tuesday, won 31-26 and got the Russian title after 21 years. They celebrated, got their golden medals. They're now mentally drained, and had only two days to get ready for the EHF cup final against Holstebro. Jan Leslie, Rostov coach, said that his team played six matches in 16 days and he's not sure what they'll look like in Holstebro. No doubt that Rostov have a wide roster, but they were focused on the championship title. Holstebro are a third Danish team, they lost to Midtjylland in the playoff semifinal last week, and had enough time to get ready. They have very good players, seven of which played the EC 2014, they have the best goalie, Solberg, and the best middle back, Kristina Kristiansen. They already beat the Russian team once this season, they beat Lada 39-29 and 32-20 in the round of 16. But, Rostov beat Lada now, 25-22, 31-26. Let's just mention that Holstebro were the death of Lada in this same EHF cup twice in the last three seasons. Details

Nantes finished regular season in spot 5 (on a 4-5-5 record home) and reached playoffs with two wins in the last rounds. Their goals have been achieved and, as they say, there's no pressure in the quarterfinals as they have nothing to lose. Nimes finished regular season in spot 4, 4 points ahead of Nantes. They played their 4th French Cup final and failed to win it for the 4th time. After a 24-24 thriller in regulation time, Metz did better in a penalty shootout. Nanets and Nimes met twice this season, each team won away (Nantes -Nimes 26-27, Nimes-Nantes 33-37). Nimes have since acquired on of the the best middle backs in France Pineau, who played at Krim in Champions League for a few months this season after leaving Vardar. On the other hand, Nantes have only one goal keeper for these playoffs (Lafurnete from Spain). Subsitite goal keeper Obein got injured a week ago and will miss the rest of the season. Obein was the started at first but Lafuente took over in the second part of the season. Numes have league's top scorer Chebbah (150 goals), the well experienced right back Ayglon and Danetter, and Jericek from Slovenia. At Nantes, the back line is the best part of the team. There are two Serbians there, among others, which I see as a chance for Nimes since they have Serbia's former junior goal keeper Colic on the goal. Colic is doing great in the second part of the season (17 saves against Metz in Cup final). She knows the two most important players at Nantes very well, which is enough for me to believe Nimes are closer to QF in this match. Details

This is the last chance for Celle to stay in Bundesliga. After a 13-game losing run, Celle are the bottom-table team with eight points. Despite that, there are still chances that they stay in the league. The defeat series was started with none other but their today's opponents. In that match Celle held the lead for a long time (13-11 at half- time), and the home Bad Wildungen took the lead in 50th minute and won in the last five minutes (26-24). Today they're without pressure since their stay in the league is guaranteed.
Celle are now stronger for the left wing Dybul who didn't play in the first head-to-head, while their best scorer Vershuren has the flu. Bad Wildungen won in the first head-to-head thanks to their best player Vasilescu who scored 14 goals at the time (she's the best scorer of the league with 186 goals). Vasilescu and Van Gulik are two best scorers of Wildungen. They're also former Celle players. Celle will probably prepare their defense a bit better. Another interesting connection are Roben sisters - Jolanda plays for Celle and Miranda for Wildungen. For Celle each point is worth gold now and they're playing against a team whom they've beaten in previous seasons. Wildungen is under no pressure today. The offered handicap with the home team being undefeated has a value. Details

Nice host the first of the two playoff quarterfinal matches of the French championship. Nice got their first playoff by winning the sixth place at the league table, and after playing only three seasons of the best French league. They fulfilled their goal and now can feel no pressure. These results are no coincidence, just look at all the names they have in the team. They don't lack experience, have great individual quality, and the only thing they don't have are Metz's reputation and history.
Metz are multiple French champions, but they're not the team you'd think of about winning the title this season. They ended the regular part of the season third. They didn't leave a good impression in the CL. Their roster is wide, especially for the back players. Metz beat Nimes on Saturday after a thriller in the final moments. It was 24-24 in the regular time, and then they got the trophy in the French cup thanks to the seven meter shots. It's also one of the reasons I think they'll have big problems in the first round of the playoff today. Nice are fresher and feel no pressure, and Metz are under pressure after winning the champion title. They're also tired after winning the cup. Second, Nice proved to be a tough nut for Metz to crack twice this season. Metz won here at the beginning of the season by three (Sept 30th, 24-27), but they shared the points in Metz (Jan 14th, 23-23). Nice goalie, Cleopatre Darleux, had 14 saves and was the best player in that second duel. She played in Metz before coming to Nice, so she knows most of their players. I expect this match to be evened out, and no more than two goals difference for whoever wins. Details

Rostov are only one win away from the title they've been waiting for 21 years.The first match in the title playoffs was on Lada's ground. It was a fierce fight, psychological outsmarting, a small number of technical offense errors and a great day for goalkeeper Gabisova who, with 13 saves, was the most responsible for Rostov's win in the first finals match. The final score (25-22) was identical to their head-to-head played two months ago in the Russia Cup finals, with a lot of analogy and similar details. Gabisova also had 13 saves in that match. In the finals of the cup Rostov's back left, Bobrovnikova, pulverized Lada with 11 goals. The same effect was achieved by the midfield. Coach Leslie pulled out the maximum from Ilina in this match, she didn't play in the defense, she was completely focused in the offense, the transition wasn't that fast, but the final impact was huge. Rostov need to win, we can expect a similar concept in this match was well. They'll go for the score and their defense is by far one of the best this season for Russia. Except for the first head-to-head which was at the start of the season, all other three matches in the rest of the season were almost the same; all three deep under 50 goals. And if we look at the finals playoff matches in which Rostov have been playing in three out of the last four seasons (2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13), all eight of Rostov's finale matches ended under 50 goals. When we talk about the number of goals, we have a similar epilogue for today's match after which I expect the home Rostov to finally celebrate the long-awaited title. Details

Astrahanochhka hosted Game 1 in the series for spot 3 (best-of-three wins format ). European spots are already decided on and the only thing teams have left to play here is the bronze medal. These two teams met twice this season and each won one game. Zvezda won home 30-25 at season's start while Astrahanochka won mid-January 33-28. The home team had a lot tougher opponents in this playoff and displayed much bigger quality. They first knocked out the defending champions after three games to lose to Rostov in both matches. Rostov are the prime candidate for title this season but Atrakhanochka were very close to them in the first semifinal match to concede a goal in the very last second. That defeat left mental consequences that were very obvious in the second game in Rostov. Unlike the home team, Zvezda were behind in both matches against Lada and lost both without standing a chance.

When comparing these two teams, the home team have better quality roster, which will, I think, be the upper hand for the home team. It could in the end be crucial in this series. A few home team players used to be at Zvezda, both goal keepers know them very well too, which resulted in Trusova's 14 saves in the second h2h of the season, and 15 goals in total for Vyakhireva and Kuznetsova. One other thing, the home team have middle back Nikitina, who missed almost the entire regular season with an injury. She is the starter in playoffs. I think Atrahanochka will win the bronze medal and win the first match by at least 4 or 5 goals in the first match. Details

Esbjerg are favoured to win a position in the final, but the story is not over. Only one goal difference gives Viborg the room to consider their chances in today's second semi-final game. Considering their player limit, but they've gotten used to that over the majority of the season, the fact is that 7 or 8 players in rotation and two keepers will carry most of the burden today as well. Since this format of defense was the key to coach Friis-Hansen's success and results, after his arrival in February, we can expect Viborg's maximum approach, especially in the defense in this, potentially last game of the season. We can also add the fact that Masson and Poulsen on goal are the reason for most of Viborg's results this season, as well as Hansen's announcement that he wasn't happy with defense in the first match and that they will try to improve it ahead of the second game. In three of their head-to-head games this season, we have two unders and one game with 53 goals that fell apart at the end of the second half. The great importance of today's game gives me right to believe in their third game on the margin of 50 goals this season. Details

The currently leading Buxtehuder are five matches away from the end of the championship and prior to today's away match in Oldenburg and according to their coach Dirk Leun, they have a clear goal: "We are at the top and we hold the destiny of the champions fate in our hands. According to that we're heading to Oldenburg to win." And we should trust him. Buxtehuder are in a 13-game winning run, the start of this big winning series was with beating Oldenburg. It was that match, which was also the derby of North Germany, that Buxtehuder entered with huge player problems. Because of injuries the team didn't have three important players: captain Isabell Klein, Jana Podpolinski and Friederike Gubernatis, with only 10 players in the roster. With such a back line in which they only had the standard Jessica Oldenburg and with the only left-handed player in the team, Stefanie Melbeck, for whom that was the first match after a two-year break. During the match Buxtehuder led with six goals of difference and in the end won with 30-29. On today's away match Buxtehuder had all the strength they need available.

Today the situation is diametrically different. Buxtehuder are at the top of their shape against a home team who have missed their best player in the past montch, Angie Geschke, and they're a team whose shape is failing with a record of three losses and two wins in the last five rounds. Oldenburg's coach announced that Geschke returned to practices this week, and that she'll be available today, but that she's not ready for the full 60 minutes. Two more players were injures this week: Neuendorf, a comeback after a two-year break. Neuendorf injured herself this week and didn't practice with the team. The second one is the right wing Schirmer, and both won't make it to the roster. In the last match against Metzingen they had 10 players, today they will have the rotation and their most efficient player Geschke whose shape is questionable. I see Buxtehuder as the favorite for the win. Details

I can't see Leverkusen as the favourites today. There are many reasons for that. The first one, Metzingen is going into this game more rested because their last game was last week, while Leverkusen played on Wednesday an away game against Leipzig (they lost 28-31). The second, and far more important one, are Leverkusen's problems with players. The home team will be without their main playmaker, Anne Jochin. She's a quality player who can play both as right and left back, and she is also the team's third best scorer with 105 goals. Anna Seidel, one of two pivots, will also be absent, as well as left back Adeberg. Seidel has the same amount of playtime as the second pivot Karolius, who will have to play both defense and offense for the whole 60 minutes today. Metzingen are in top form, they are on a 6-game winning streak, and a win today would confirm the third postion and they would be close to a spot in European competition, with four rounds to go. Their main problem in today's game will be stopping Leverkusen's main scorer, Kim Naidzinavicius, who is the forth scorer of the League with 145 goals. Considering the fact that with Anne Jochin's absence, Naidzinavicius took over the complete organisation of attacks, and that she will face Metzingen's defense, which is the second best defense in Bundesliga, I expect the home team to have much more problems than what is indicated by the odds. I expect Metzingen closer not only to the offered handicap but also closer to the win. Details

The final best-of-three series of play-offs is starting. The first game is played today on Lada's field, while the second one on April 24th and a possible third game the day after, will be played in Rostov. It can be said that Rostov are expected finalists, a team that made a lot of good transfers during the off-season. With Jan Leslie on the bench , a quality Danish specialist, who knows how to win championships, the team also has, with several Russian national team members, three players from Ukraine and Montenegro's national teams. Rostov are safe on their way towards the title which they have been waiting for 21 years. They finished the regular season in top spot with 14 wins, one draw, and three losses, and they defeated Astrahanochka in two games in the play-offs semi-final. After a minimal away win against Astrahanochka (23-22), they won the second game against the ambitious Astrahan team by 18 goals (36-18). Lada are the most pleasant surprise of this year's championship. After they replaced most of their roster last Summer, players who were in the background last year came to the fore, lead by Irina Bliznova, an experienced member of the Russian national team. The start of the season wasn't very good, they won only 4 points after first six rounds. Contrary to predictions, Lada surpassed all expectations and went on 16-game winning run (their last league defeat was in October last year) and earned the second position at the end of the regular season. In the semi-final, Lada defeated Zvezda in two games (33-26, 27-23).

A few words about their head-to-head clashes this season. In the first round of this season, Rostov easily defeated Lada (32-25), and on the some court in January, Lada won 24-23 after a nerve-wracking finish. Their last clash was two months ago in the Russian Cup final, where Rostov won at home (25-22) and took their first trophy of the season.

Defeat against Lada in January was also Rostov's first defeat this season, and it happened at a time when the team's form dropped. The first reason for that was the fact that, unlike Lada, whose team was complete, Rostov lost seven players for a month because of the European Championship at the end of 2014, which left a mark on their game in that period. The second reason is the absence of Regina Shymkut, left back and the team's captain, who hasn't played until the start of the play-offs due to an injury. Smykut already played four games this month, two in EHF Cup against ERD, two in the semi-final against Astrakhanochka, and in these two matches she scored 19 goals and announced that she will be the striking force in Rostov's offense in the final as well. Rostov are a team with the longest roster in the Russian Championship, they showed the most quality, and they have far more quality individuals than Lada, and that is why they are going into this final as the title favorites.
Details

This text will be published soon. Details

This duel will influence these teams' placement to the European cups next season. That's only one of the reasons for picking the bet of this being a game under 55 goals.
Metzingen's defense is the second best in Bundesliga with 24 goals conceded per game. They're at the top of their form, with eight wins and two defeats in the last ten. One of those defeats was against the current leader Buxtehuder in a match at 51 goals (23-28), and the second against Oldenburg in January (28-31). What is different today is that the left back Ana Geschke won't be playing, and she was the best scorer in the first duel, with 8 goals. Geschke is out for the rest of the month, and she's Oldenburg's best scorer, and the fourth of the Bundesliga, with 136 goals. Since back positions are a problem for Oldenburg, coach Krowicki activated Neuendorf, who came back after a two years break. She can cover the middle and the left back position. She scored two goals in her first game against Koblenz, but she's far from her best form with a break that long. She'll have problems organizing the game against best teams, Metzingen included. Considering this state, a lot of Oldenburg's offense will depend on two back players, mediocre Caroline Muller and the right Julia Venzl. Metzingen's defense will definitely pay special attention to these two. Ana Loerper is pivot for Metzingen, she came from Oldenburg last season, and she knows coach Krowicki's tactics well.
Statistically, out of four duels they played last season, three were under today's margin, and the conditions are good to see another one tonight. Details

This text will be published soon. Details

This text will be published soon. Details

The match between U19 Serbia and Kosovo handball teams will be the first official match between these two teams in team sports. If Kosovo handball is really at the bottom, women's handball is then rock bottom. These girls first played last year at European Open 18 tournament (something like the unofficial European Championship) to, as expected, do horribly and finish in the bottom 18th place. They lost all seven games to Slovakia 4-28, Denmark 8-27, Lithuania 8-18, Hungary 11-30, France 10-35, Austria 18-40 and Finland 8-27. Let's just mention that 2x20 minutes were played in all those games.

This Serbian team has won the silver medal at 2013 Mediterranean Games, didn't play at WC last year but did well in test games before and after the WC. Late in June of 2014, they lost two matches to Romania (25-28 and 25-27). Romania became world champions a month ago. Serbia beat Croatia mid-October 2014 twice. They will be without one off their top players, left back Kovacevic here. Either way,most of their players are in top Serbian league, which is at least 3 levels above Kosovo's league which is at elementary school level.

Any other team meeting Kosovo at this point might have gone full throttle since it's their debut, but Serbia will do their absolute best for sure, all throughout the game. Details

The Hungarian FTC-Rail Cargo won the Cup in 2011 and 2012. To get the third title in four years, they have to beat teams they lost to twice in the last year's Champions League. Midtjylland beat them twice, 32-23 at home and 26-25 in Budapest. Not much has changed in the last year, the Hungarians have a new coach, but basically the same roster. The only change is that they've got a new goalie, Katarina Tomašević. Midtjylland have almost the same starting roster, plus Sabina Jabosen and the experienced pivot Pedersen.
Comparing their results from the last year's Champions League, and add the fact that FTC brought a great goalie, and Midtjylland the best European defensive player, and connect that to Midtjylland's effect in the Danish championship (20.2 goals conceded per match), we can see that this will be a match where defenses will dominate. FTC can force the offense when allowed to by their opponents, but that's not the case here. We can compare this to matches FTC played against Gyori this season, who are similar to Midtjylland. They lost 26-31 and won 24-21 in the championship, and lost 23-29 in the Hungarian cup final last week. So, we can expect today's first semifinal match to be based on limiting the Hungarian offensive, and the second match will focus on getting the final and the trophy. Besides the under, the basic pick for this match, there's also value in the margin offered for the handicap on the Danish team. Details

The perfomnaces in Champions League so far, potential, great individual quality and experience make Larvik the heavy favorite for this season's Champions League title. There are no weak position on the team that has 4 players who won the gold medal at last year's European Championship. The others are former World and European titles holders. That is too much for the German champions who are without their top scorer (72 goals in CL), first choice goal keeper Krause, and starting left back Frey. Thuringer would havea tough time doing well even if complete and any defeat by up to three goals would be good for them. All of that makes me believe things will be settled here after the first match. I think the goal-difference will be at least 2 or 3 goals higher than the handicap margin. Details

Muratpasa made it through to EHF semifinals after beating Buxtehunder. Both their win and the final goal difference in the second leg game were a huge surprise (28-18). The Germans are top table in the German championship for a while now, they had a 6-goal lead from the first match and the fact they lost by 10 goals in the second game was nothing short of a miracle. The official story from Buxtehunder is that the entire team failed but rumor has it that they lost on purpose to avoid having to play two competitions and to focus only on Bundesliga, in which they are headed to win the title.

The Turks are set to meet one of the best Danish teams today. Unlike Germans, they want to win the EHF title. Holstebro have 7 players who were at 2014 EC, the top goal keeper from that EC, one of the best middle backs, and three Swedish internationals who finished that EC in spot 3. They have equally good 12 players, fast transition, and one of the most efficient fast breaks. They are in Danish league quarterfinals, looking to get through to semifinals after the first game win over Silkeborg by 11 goals. Coach Agesen rested the entire lineup in the second half of that match.

The Turkish team have 6 international players, with the potentially weak link on the team being the goal keepers. They are not on Holstebro's level quality wise.

Let's just mention that this match is taking place in Isparta (130 km from Antalia) and not in Antalia since the arena there didn't meet the conditions for an EHF semifinals. We need to wait and see whether the home team will have the kind of fan support they would if they played home. I'm going with this stake only because the Danes played Solkeborg game only two days ago even though I think this will end close to a double-digit goal difference. Details

Due to obligations in Europe for the away team, this duel is taking place earlier than scheduled. The home team played a draw at Koblenz in the last round, after dropping a four goal lead in the last 10 minutes. One must note their quality defense, led by goalie Cathrin Giegerich, perhaps their best player, and member of the national team. Bietigheim have been struggling with injuries from the start of the season, and never had a full roster. Hungarian veteran Maria Ilyes did not play the Koblenz game due to illnes, and might not today, and she was their best scorer in the first match against Thuringer, scoring 9. Two more of their players had flu problems recently, backs Simone Larsen Poulsen and Jongenelen, and performed worse at Koblenz due to that.
For Thuringer this match comes just before their home quarterfinal duel in the Champions league against Larvik, on Saturday, and one can expect the players to be already there in their minds. They're missing three important players right now, first goalie Krause due to knee injury, and top scorer Nadgornaja and left winger Frey. Krause was well replaced by junior national team member Eckerle in the past two games, saving 16 shots against Blomberg in a good preview for tonight. In a situation where Thuringer need not push and need just two points here while playing without their best scorer, and the home team have a limited roster and cannot rely on their offense, one naturally sees the option of at least 1-2 goals under the offered margin. Their first match this season ended at exactly 53 goals, while the last one they played here last season was one less (17-35). Details