Cav's Place

Romania had three teams in this season’s EHF Women’s Champions’ League but, seeing as this is not a matter of coefficients or even qualifying rounds, at the moment it’s still pretty much anyone’s guess whether this will continue to be the case next season. If CSM Bucharest, who had nothing to play for anymore, remaining third regardless of the result, would have thrown the match against Gloria Bistrita from the last round, which would have resulted in Gloria also making it past the group stage, it seems pretty certain that we wouldn’t have been allowed three teams anymore, to avoid a repeat of this scenario of the two that are in the same group fixing a match. But, while that didn’t happen, CSM having no mercy and trashing Gloria 32-23, this caused Gloria to be eliminated at a time when Rapid still had to avoid losing to Buducnost, away, in order to avoid being the only club to actually fail to advance from their group, after Vipers went bankrupt. And having three teams among the 16 but ending up with two of them among the only three that were actually eliminated in the group stage would have also most likely indicated that we don’t deserve to have so many. Admittedly, there are few teams that can compete at this level, and past seasons have shown what happens when weaker teams are accepted, but I’d say that at least Germany would have a very strong case to make for at least one additional team next season, after only having a single one this time around but getting four into the group stage of the European League and no less than three of them past it.
Well, at least that scenario of Romania losing two of the three teams was avoided today, when Rapid somehow managed to claw a draw right at the end of a match during which they were pretty much always behind. And it was a bad match, with both teams playing poorly and making mistake after mistake, the notable exception being Rapid’s goalkeeper, who was simply outstanding and kept the team in the match time and time again. It’s also true that the referees were pretty much playing for Buducnost, many wrong decisions being made in their favor, some of them blatantly so, but that doesn’t change the fact that Rapid played badly, especially in the offense. Yet, despite being three goals behind with two minutes to go, they managed to get that draw that put them through right at the end, the referees at least being fair in the final seconds, penalizing Buducnost first with a two-minute suspension and then awarding Rapid their first and only seven meters in the entire match right at the end. And they scored, therefore ensuring that they remained ahead of Buducnost and through, despite actually being one point behind the withdrawn Vipers. It still means that they made it through with a single actual victory, way back in the first round, at home against the same Buducnost, the other recorded victory being a result of the fact that they were scheduled to play the second match against Vipers after that club went bankrupt, and the fact that they’ll play against CSM for a place in the quarter-finals means that we’ll only have a single team in that stage. But this also ensures that we will have that one team there.
Of course, Germany still has a strong case, and the fact that the Romanian team, which should normally be CSM, will play Esbjerg in the quarter-finals, with the second match being away, and Esbjerg eliminated CSM in this stage in both 2022 and 2023, does mean that our chances of finally having a team in the Final Four once again remain quite low. But, on the other hand, both Romanian teams that entered the European League this season won their respective groups. Admittedly, in case of Dunarea Braila the result was obtained in dramatic fashion, following today’s draw against Larvik, in a match that was pretty much the opposite of Rapid’s, a good one in which Dunarea led the entire time, usually by a comfortable margin, having 32-28 with less than seven minutes to go only to see themselves equalized at 32 with a little over a minute to go. But they finally managed to score again after that and end it at 33-33, which led to them winning the group and Larvik being knocked out. And now there’s the definite possibility of repeating last season’s performance, when Romania actually had two teams in the Final Four, which situation should strengthen our case to keep having three teams in the Champions’ League.
But, of course, what will happen next season remains to be seen, what matters now being that CSM Bucharest played fairly, or even more than fairly, making a point of avoiding any risk of being accused of anything even if they could have been excused for resting some players and taking it somewhat easier, and that both Rapid and Dunarea Braila made it through in their respective competitions. Quite undeservedly so in case of Rapid, but it’s not like Buducnost would have deserved advancing either, neither team being at the level required for the competition. And I’m referring to the entire season, not just to today’s match.