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Both clubs struggling with injuries

The injury problems were a common thing for Copenhagen from the start of the season, while Odense's bigger problem than their "unexpected" defeat in the last match against Skive will be the injury of their best player Maria Adler who will be out until the end of the year

After playing four rounds, Copenhagen are at the bottom with only 1 point, and their last defeat came 3 days against against Ringkobing away (16-21). One of the reasons for the bad start are definitely numerous injuries that have been following Copenhagen since the start of the season. The list of injured players is huge, five players from the wider roster are out, the last one being Danish cadet international Ronja Johansen. They only had 9 players available for the match against Ringkobing, which is obviously not enough for a positive result of any kind.

In the first part, Copenhagen had some control of the game but in second half, the players simply vanished off the court as reflected in the statement from their coach Martin Albertsen:

- We were completely invisible on the court in the second half and I can't remember a game in which we scored only 5 goals in one half. We played well in the first, we had complete control in the first 20 minutes. After the break, we were dead, we had no dynamics, no speed, no attacking solutions - said Martin Albertsen.

Albertsen also mentioned the problem of injured players, the squad lacking width and increased frustration with a string of bad results:

- There's no doubt this is not the start we wished for, we are far from what we planned but we just have to be patient and get the most from this situation.

But, there is no end to their problems as their keeper Simon Soby had a stomach problem last night and will be doubtful for today.

Odense put up a very disappointing performance in their last defeat against Skive, they had attacking errors but the main reason for the defeat was their poor defense which simply didn't work in this match. An even bigger problem in the rest of the first half of the season will be the injury of their best player, left back Maria Adler. She dislocated her shoulder five minutes before the end of the first half and the first results show she will be out until the end of the season.

The Swede is Odense's most efficient player with 25 goals scored after the first 4 rounds, followed by Siri Seglem with 17 and Sarah Iversen with 14 goals. Adler was also the central part of their defense with Iversen so her absence is a twofold downside. In addition to Adler, the list of absences includes left wing Matilde Nielse and right win Katja Marcher.

Copenhagen have a problem with their squad depth, only 9 players were available for their last match against Ringkobing 6 days ago and they only scored 5 goals in the second half, which goes to show that fatigue played its part. The players that are available are those from their wide roster with limited playing time that are usually used to rest their main players but they will now spend almost entire 60 minutes on the court. Their characteristic, both this season and in the previous, were long attacks and very few goals from counters so now their average is 20.75 goals per game. On the other hand, we have Odense who will be without one of their top player and their top scorer Maria Adler (25 goals in 3 games). Without a player like here, Odense's already weak right side will be in even bigger trouble and will struggle in offense. Last season these two teams played two matches with 40 and 41 goals, Copenhagen need the points today and the only way to get them is through calm organized play without fast tempo.