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This match is particularly important for Koblenz and their bid to avoid relegation since they are now only one spot ahead of the danger zone and with the same number of points as Celle, who are second to last in the table. That is the first reason for me to believe that both teams will be focused and concentrated throughout the match. Another reason is injury-struggles both teams are having. That has been a problem for Bietigheim all season long, even since they lost the key organizer Jurgutyt at the very start. She missed the whole season, while one of the pivots (Jorgesen) hasn't played since early February. The second pivot Hegy decided to retire early this year, which left Bietigheim wth only ten players in the last match.
Koblenz have problem this week as well - they will be without first choice goal keeper Zec today (got injured Wednesday). The second more serious injury was that of their top scorer Varga, who need to take some time off. She might play defense only today. Back player Sazdovski has the same type of injury like Varga, hers is only not that bad, meaning she will be on the team. Varga is Koblenz's top scorer with 65 goals, while Sazdovski has 35 so far.

The first match, in which Bietigheim were the home team, finished with Koblenz scoring 51 goal and winning. Varga scored 8 goals back then. These teams met once again in German Cup and Koblez won again (27-26) in a match that 'fell apart' in the last 10 minutes. The first half ended at 22 goals. The home team forced to do without their top scorer and the importance of this game suggest we will see 50 goals max here. Details

There are no mysteries in the top of the Norwegian league table before the last round of the national championship. Larvik secured the champion title a few rounds ago, and after their last duel against Byasen on Wednesday, the title was officially served to Larvik's players. They continued celebrating and didn't have to practice in the last two days. Tertnes beat Halden in an away match in the last round, and secured the bronze. They'll get their medals today, which is why we think their guests won't ruin the celebration, which would mean Larvik won't win by double-digit difference. We can expect the guests to not focus fully, and fight maximally, something they usually do. The second thing is that their tradition shows Tertnes rarely lost by over ten goals difference. The first match they played this season, on Larvik's court, ended by -6 (22-28), it was -8 and -12 last season, and another one that Tertnes, surprisingly, won. There's one more match Larvik won in the Norwegian cup, by +8 (30-22). Larvik players are already thinking about the fourth quarterfinal match they'll be playing against the German Thuringer next Saturday, within the Champions League, so we can expect them to go easy in this one. Details

A duel between the team with the second best offense of the Danish championship, Tvis Holstebro, and a squad with the two leading scorers in regular season, Silkeborg, naturally imposes the expectation of an offense dominated game. These two teams already met just two weeks ago in the last round of the championship, but that match cannot be a benchmark as Holstebro played that match to lose and then meet Silkeborg in the quarterfinal again. Holstebro coach said they played at half strength in that match, and that they'll pick up the pace and play aggressively in the quarterfinal, with lots of running. Their first duel, in the first part of the season, ended with Holstebro running over Silkeborg like an express train, with the game ending at 56 goal in this very arena, while their last preseason duel had a similar outcome (38-19). Silkeborg already exceeded all expectations here, and have nothing to lose. Their main strengths are their perimeter scorers, Jette Hansen and Cecilie de la Cour, and they'll rely on them here as well. A handicap option on Holstebro is also playable, but I see more value in the margin offered on over. Details

A month after they last met in the championship, Thuringer will play in Leverkusen tonight without some important players (goal keeper Crause, top scorer Nadgornaja, Austrian Frey). Team captain Wohlbold and Huber got back from their national teams games with injuries and didn't participate in training sessions the last few days. Coach Muller said that Wolhold and Huber will be there for the Levekusen match.
Krause will be out for at least 6 weeks, Nadgornaja and Frey for at least 14. Muller is most concerned about the goal keeper position. He is left with only one option for it - the talented Eckerle. Kraus was the key figure in defense and most of the time the driving force on the team.
Coach Volf said Leverkusen will play aggressively against Thuringer. They were on a 4-game winning run in the championship before the break. Two out of the top 5 teams won in Leverkusen this season, and Leverkusen don't have problems with injuries at this point.
Thuringer have enough choice for back positions and Nadgornaja's absence can be made up for. Krause's, on the hand, cannot. That should affect the game and the score of this match. Leverkusen were a tough nut for Thuringen in the previous season as well and given visitors' form now, handicap at home team definitely has value. Details

There are two rounds left till the end, this match is important result-wise for both teams. Oppsal are after the runnerup spot, which is the goal they set ahead of the season. Nordstrand is at spot 9, one spot above the danger zone but with the same number of points as Halden and Fredrikstad, who are in danger zone. We have their duel from the first part of the season from Oppsala where Nordstrand won by 12 goals. That was the worse defeat Oppsala had this season. Oppsal had it bad before that match, they were in crisis but they're now top form and recorded two wins after the bearable defeat to Larvik. They are complete, five of their players played for Norway national team last weekend, which speaks volumes of their quality. Four of them played for Norway at Golden League in Portugal, while Kurtovic did great in France, and Aune and Mortensen left a great impression in their national team debut. Oppsal are at least one level above Nordstrand quality-wise at the moment. They will also want revenge for the bad first defeat and all in all, the margin seems to be set at least 2 or three goals short. Details

Serbia's convincing win in the first friendly duel yesterday didn't show their quality or their possibilities by far. Slovenija were there only with their bodies, but not their minds, and made many mistakes in the offense, and conceded even more easy goals. Their roster is individually more experienced, they've got lots of players who played the Champions League last week, Gros (Metz), Lazović (Vardar), Koren, Mavsar, Marincek,Gregorc (Krim), and there's Branka Zec who played a great season in the German league. Most of them were there just for showing yesterday, but that won't happen today for sure. Serbia not only lack their best four players (Lekić, Damnjanovič, Cvijić and Tomašević), but are also playing with a completely new wing line on both positions, one experienced pivot and back players (besides both right back Živković and Popović), who were in the background yesterday. I expect this match to be much more evened out than the one yesterday, and the value isn't only in the handicap offered for Slovenia, but also in their win. Details

The main reason Esbjerg were convincingly defeated in the first match in Erdi is because the team weren't tactically ready in that EHF cup quarterfinal's first match. Esbjerg played a much more important match against Odense on Wednesday. That one decided the first place of the Danish championship, and Esbjerg won easily, 32-21. They're ready today, and announce forcing fast rhythm. Esbjerg's players are good enough to pull that off. They easily caught up when they were behind last season - they were six goals behind in Volgograd, and won by nine in the end, 36-27. We can expect something similar today, Esbjerg will force their offense, they're a team with convincingly the most efficient offense in the Danish championship. They won all five last matches in the national championship over the margin offered today. The difference from the first match makes them force fast game from the start, and that will leave room for the opponents' fastbacks, the right wing Krpež gave most trouble to Esbjerg in the first match. Both options are worth it, the handicap offered on Esbjerg, and over in total, but summing it up, I think there's more value in betting on over 55 goals total. Details

Goppingen didn't get a win since the end of November last year, and broke that dry spell with a win in Berlin last week, 28-24. The home team, Celle, are under even more pressure, with eight defeats in a row. This match means a lot for both teams, and their final placement at the end of the season. The first duel they played in Goppingen this season ended 25-24 for Celle. Both teams play similar handball, spend a lot of energy in the defense, and don't force fastbreaks. Celle's offense is convincingly the worst one of the league.
We'll certainly see under 50 goals today. Goppingen have five injured players, and only 10 players were in the roster in the last two matches. Most of them play both sides for over 55 minutes, the best scorer Nicole Dinkel spent 58 minutes on the court in the last match against Fuchse. Two out of five best scorers are on the injured list, Maike Daniels and Beate Scheffknecht. They scored 10 in the first match against Celle. Tonight's match is important, so the tradition shows that three out of the last four ended under the offered margin, and with the trend they're currently in, Celle have five unders in the last five matches, Goppingen four out of five, so there's plenty of arguments as to why this match will end at least 2-3 goals under the margin. Details

This is one of those matches for players with lots of experience, those who can handle pressure, and Vardar have plenty of those. From both goalies, Suslina and Leynaud, to the team brain Andreja Lekić, the scorer Penezić and wings Radičević, Dembela, Sokac (Zebić), and all the rest. They all have plenty of very important games in their career, and I don't doubt they'll be fully motivated today. Dynamo did crush them in the first match, but that was one of the worst, if not the worst performance by this new Vardar. Most of the players literally just paraded around and waited for the match to end. It's completely different today, they've got the home court, they're readier both tactically and physically, and the Dane Pytlick joined Indira on the bench. As her closest assistant, there will obviously be changes in the rotation, they'll be asking for time-outs in the right moment, and influence the players the right way.
Another fact important for this pick is that the Russian teams traditionally have a harder time in away matches, so with all that said, there might be 8-9 goals difference in the final result, perhaps more likely 5-6. Details

The quarterfinal of the Cup Winners Cup brings together once again, like last year, Zvenigorod and Fleury Loiret. Zvenigorod won both times last year (32-28, 34-28), and later got to the final. This time both games are in France, and though Zvenigorod was the favorite last year and justified that, this time around the tables have turned. Fleury have almost the same roster as last season, with three Spanish and several current and past French national team members, and reinforced this season with the arrival of Cabral Barbosa. Zvenigorod on the other hand rejuvenated their roster. They lost their main star and best young Russian player, Viakhireva, experienced Postnova, as well as pivot Lobach and back Artsiukovich. Their best players are wingers Marenikova and Uskova, and the goalies are experienced Sidorova and Basarab. Apart from left back Koroleva their perimeter is inexperienced (Potapenko, Khavronina, Ivanova), while pivot is their last season substitute Antonova. Fleury dominate their league, leading with 13 victories, two draws and a single defeat. Two weeks ago they won the French league cup. Zvenigorod ended the regular season as third ranked, with 14 victories and 4 losses.
Fleury have a stronger and wider roster, are playing at home, and are also fresher going into this match. They played their last match on March 4th (29-23 vs Nimes), while Zvenigorod played against Rostov two days ago. They won, but in a match with no significance for Rostov where they were missing 4 regular starters, while the match was very important for Zvenigorod to get a better position for the playoff. I expect Fleury to try getting a score that leads them to the playoff in the first match, as well as getting payback for the defeats suffered last season. Details

One can expect Skive to be emotionally relieved after the big victory against Copenhagen which saved them from being directly relegated from the league, and that they'll be able to play a relaxed game with no imperative to win. Under such circumstances Skive play offensively focused handball, producing high scores but lots of 'gift' goals for their opponents as well, which influenced them having the highest average of goals allowed in the league (29.5 per game). Ringkobing are ranked right above Skive in number of goals allowed as second worst, and with the exception of the match against Nykobing which directly decided their relegation, their last five matches ended above the 50 goals margin. Both teams have very important qualification matches coming up, playing to stay in the league against teams from Division 1, so we can expect players to avoid getting injured, and thus a slightly more relaxed defense in a match whose outcome is already irrelevant. Details

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This is a repeat of the last year's quarterfinal duel between these two teams in this same cup, where Byasen ended up being the winners, after two match with almost 120 goals total (29-30, 37-23). Compared to those two matches, big changes took place in both rosters, but the game concept remained almost identical. Byasen rejuvenated their roster, there are six junior national team player who basically carry the team. They're one of the extremely offensive teams when playing at home, with the second best offense after Larvik, with 30 goals per match, but they're also a team who conceded a lot (second worst defense with 28.5 goals conceded per match). The wing players Venn and Jacobsen are the most exposed ones, the back players spend a lot in the offense, and they regularly shoot 60 hits per game. In the last match, three days ago, they defeated the favored Glassverket (29-28) in an away match.
A team such as the Austrian Hypo this season are a perfect match for the Norwegian vice champion. They don't play good defense, which isn't surprising with all the new players in the team. They've got problems against teams who force fast transition, concede a lot from fastbreaks, like they did against Leipzig and Krim in the Champions League this year. On the other hand, Hypo can use their players being fresh because they didn't have any matches this week, and also some of the offensive players' individual experience. That way, they can take advantage of all the mistakes Byasen make in their defense, those that have been obvious this entire season. The conditions for this new match lead us to think there'll be almost 60 goals scored. Details

Lublin got to this quarterfinal over the second Danish team, Randers. They surprised Randers (27-18), and then barely saved themselves in the return fixture, and secured getting placed among the top eight, by only one goal difference from the first match (21-19). Randers had their problems, they played without the right back Wallen, and the team were generally in a bad form. Midtyjlland are completely opposite. They're the main favorites in the Danish championship, have ten wins in a row in the championship and this cup, and won by less than five goals difference only once. They're in their best form, and have national teams' players on all positions.
Lublin played the Champions League groups, and the results weren't something to brag about. Only one win, one tie, and four defeats. They defeated Metz at home, who lost twice to Viborg, and played with only seven players in the rotation in those matches. They lost to Larvik (23-28), and the Romanian Baia Mare (22-28). These two teams played the Champions League group phase, Midtjylland won twice, on this same court. The Danes didn't win easily, to be honest, 25-24, but the return fixture was a different case, they won 37-26. Compared to that period, Lublin now lost their two best players, Wojtas and Majerek. Midtjylland's team improved since. Even though there's a danger of the second match, the Midtjylland coach Helle Thomsen isn't one to calculate, and she'll definitely want to end all the questions about being placed in the semifinal now. Midtjylland's win is a decent material for the combinations, and a handicap is worth the set stake. Details

This is a Russian duel in the EHF cup quarterfinal, and there are at least two circumstances that make me think Rostov have a chance to create backup for getting placed to the semifinals of this competition after today's match. Both teams played the Russian championship matches on Wednesday, and Astrakhanochka had a lot more difficult task. They lost to Dinamo in Volgograd (25-29), and lost the first place of the league table, which meant the best starting position of the playoff. The defeat wasn't problematic per se, but the way they played, their offenses weren't successful, and if not for Trusa on the goal, and her 21 saves, the difference would be far bigger than these minus four. Rostov played a routine practice against Universitet (35-17), all 15 players got their chance on the court, and all got almost over 20 minutes per player, so they'd be ready for today's quarterfinal. The second thing is that unlike the Russian championship where there's a limit on a number of foreigners on the court at the same time, there are no such limits in the EHF cup, and Rostov can count on all five they have. Astrakhanochka didn't have such problems in the championship, them having only two foreigners in the team. Speaking of the Russian championship, the ratio of wins is 1-1, Rostov won 31-28, and Astrakhanocka 27-25 by the beginning of the last month. Rostov have seven wins and only one tie at home this season, and with all things mentioned already, they're much more likely to win by two goals over the margin offered for the handicap. Details

Skive are convincingly the worst team when it comes to the number of conceded goals, 30 per match, and Kopenhagen come here to play with no pressure, the first obvious option is that we'll see at least 50 goals here. Ringkobing's defeat last night made life easier for Kopenhagen when it comes to staying in the league, and they can play with no pressure today. Skive have to get a good result, but their strength lies in the offense where there's the lucid Jurišić, but also good wings, including Freya Kohrt, who got invited to the national team. The first match between these two ended at 57 goals, and that was a period when matches meant much more for both teams. There's also a match from the same period of the last season, that one ended at 54. Details

I think the margin is off by some 2-3 goals given the situation each team is in ahead of this match. Krim are no longer able to reach QFs, they can only try and win the last home game. The two points are, on the other hand, extremely important for Vardar. As the season advances, more and more players are leaving Krim. First choice play maker Pineau left first, followed by a pivot and an important defense player Goudjo. Coach Bon doesn't have too much choice and will have to improvise in some positions. When it comes to choice of players, Vardar have it best. They beat the good-quality Lepzig without Andrea Lekic. She will be back today to lead their offense and we can expect a much better and more efficient Vardar. We saw them like that a month ago in Skopje where they could have won by 20 goals if the wished to do so. Vardar has an even better situation players-wise today. Details

There are a couple of preconditions to see a similar result as in their first head-to-head this season. A lot of things will depend on the favored Leipzig's mood, but the fixture doesn't favor them. They're torn between championship and Champions League.On Sunday they returned from Skoplje (26-20 defeat), three days before that it was the tough journey and a match in Trier, and you could see fatigue on their faces. One practice on Tuesday and today they're up for a championship match, and on Saturday another one in the Champions League where they will host Buducnost. Leipzig were in a similar situation before the match in Trier. They won with only +3 and with 26 conceded goals from a team who are one of the most efficient in the championship.
Bad Wildungen are in an excellent mood. After a 6-game losing run, last weekend they beat Koblenz (32-25) and now they're again far from the danger zone. After this win the pressure is off and there are no frustrations which have been following the team or a couple of weeks. Today we can expect a more relaxed match in both ways. Wildungen are a team who conceded the most goals so far in the season, and in the offense they have the second best scorer of the league, Laura Vsilescu (131), whose average is almost eight goals per match and has only three goals less than the leading Minevskaya.

Also, the score of the first head-to-head this season was 60 goals, last year one match in the German cup on this court also ended at 60 (29-31). Let's add that in the first head-to-head this season Leipzig's most efficient player, Karolina Kudlacz, didn't play. Details

Last round of the regular season Dinamo and Astrahanochka are playing a derby which could influence the final fixture before the playoffs. If we look a their current shape and activity, I see no reason for Dinamo to be favored. They're after the place among the four best teams in the championship which would get them a better position in the playoffs. Astrahanochka have a chance to head with two points for a title from the best position. Dinamo are also playing in the Champions League; on Sunday they played in Podgorica where they lost to Buducnost (18-26), and in four days they are hosting Thuringer. That match is extremely important and is deciding of the Champions League quarter-finals placement and the final position in the group. Astrakhanochka are arriving much more rested, their last match was in the championship on February 21st when they beat Agu Aduif (42-17). They also have upcoming matches in the EHF Cup, on Saturday they're arriving to Rostov in the first quarter-finals match of the cup, but that's after today's match.
Player-wise, Dinamo rely on their best player Kochetova and goalkeeper Sedoykina. After a couple of season, Astrahanochka experimented with international players, and this season they're playing with secure Russian forces. They have five-six current national team players, former players of Zvezda, Lada nad Dinamo, a big width of 16 available players. The biggest star of the team is the Russian "wunderkind" Anna Vyakhireva, then left wing Kuznetcova, twins Zhilinskaytas and Horshenina; Goncharova who played for Dinamo, next to two Belorussian national team players. As the season is moving on, Astrahanochka are becoming one of the favorites for this season's title. From the start of 2015 they have a 6-1 record in the championship, and at the start of the last month they beat Rostov in a direct duel for the top of the table, and in the first part of the season today's opponent Dinamo with 27-25. Details

This pick's only base are the issues Viborg have right not. Their roster is incomplete, and with even coach Dalmose missing in this match they could hardly match even a far weaker team than the defending French champion. The Danes have three perimeter players in this match, Skov, Damnjanović and Burgaard), none of which are a true middle back, meaning some improvisation will have happen, and all three will have to play defense as well. Adding to this is the fact Sanja Damnjanović returned to the court two weeks ago and is far from optimal form. Viborg have just a single option for the remaining three positions on the team too, and their bench has two juniors on it and just the goalkeeper position filled with two quality players able to rotate. The badly-timed move by the club management to fire coach Dalmose just a day before this match might influence the outcome even more. Their argument, that there was a gap between the players and the coach, is flawed, as the situation was opposite, with Dalmose's energy and positive spirit getting the maximum out of an already gutted team roster. It was him that got Viborg to some of the last minute victories this season, one of those against Metz when Isabelle Gullden scored a goal 16 seconds before the end. Metz are now in an ideal situation and able to not only beat Viborg but completely outplay them, an in that case a three goal lead is a minimum. Details