Stade de Reims, Madrid CFF, Lokrians and Playas de San Javier make the semis as four teams exit Euro Winners Cup
Playas de San Javier are the only team to remain unbeaten in the 2019 Euro Winners Cup, and today they handed a heavy defeat to Djurgardens from Sweden to make the last four.
Joining them were Stade de Reims, Madrid CFF and Lokrians. As none of these teams have ever won the competition before, we can expect a fierce fight in the next round, as the remaining teams contend their first European title.
In Saturday’s semi-final fixtures, Stade de Reims will take on AIS Playas de San Javier, while Lokrians are set to face Madrid CFF.
Click here for all of today’s matches and highlights.
QUARTER-FINALS
Stade de Reims 4 – 2 Lady Grembach
As the competition took a step closer to crowning a new champion, first-timers Stade de Reims had burst onto the Euro Winners Cup scene, and in their quarter-final bout against Lady Grembach they caused even further upset.
Their star number nine Melissa Gomes struck first for the French side and before long Martins made it two. Lady Grembach got back into the match in the second period, netting twice in the space of just 15 seconds.
But Stade de Reim lead at the start of the final period and managed to push extend the difference between them and their Polish rivals to two goals, becoming the first team to qualify for the semi-finals.
Madrid CFF 3 – 2 Terracina Femminile
Friday’s second quarter-final match-up witness at tight victory for Madrid in a Spanish derby which saw the Euro Winners Cup journey end for Terracina Femminile.
Mellado and Analu scored early on for the Madrid ladies, but goals from Martinovic and Capparelli cancelled them out. The winner came from Analu who netted her second of the match.
Madrid make it into the final four, in the process achieving a new best finishing place for the club.
Roses Platja 0 – 1 Lokrians
Considering the prize at stake was a place in the semi-finals of the Euro Winners Cup, the match had a slow pace, as neither team wanted to be the one to slip up and make a fatal mistake.
The opening 12 minutes saw the zeros on the scoreboard unchanged, but as the match coninuted the intensity increased.
The second period was also goalless, but the stalemate was eventually broken by Boutimah, who struck halfway through the final period, grabbing the game from the Catalans grasp to make the final four.
After a close victory, Lokrians will face an arguably bigger task tomorrow when they will play Spanish rivals Madrid CFF in the semi-finals.
Djugardens 2 – 10 AIS Playas de San Javier
A stellar performance from Carol Glez helped Playas de San Javier breeze into the next round as she scored four to knock Djugardens IF FF out of the Euro Winner Cup.
Kempson and Fresneda bagged a brace each and the Dutch side could only manage two goals in response, taking the final score to an emphatic 2-10.
Playas de San Javier remain the only team unbeaten in this year’s contest, and are one win away from achieving their best finish in the competition. Can they go all the way?
Stade de Reims, having won their earlier game against Lady Grembach, will be their semi-final opponents.
PLAY-OFFS (9th place)
Havana Shots 1 – 7 WFZ Zvezda
The best either of these sides could hope for after exiting the competition in the Round of 16 was a ninth-place finish and the reigning champions WFC Zvezda look more like the team of 2018 as they sunk fellow former titleholders by seven goals.
The Russians looked vulnerable at times and the scoreline would have been very different if it weren’t for the heroics of the Zvezda goalkeeper Silina.
Back to winning ways, the play-offs offer Zvezda the opporuntity to secure consolation victories, before heading back to Russia.
Fundacio Terrassa 3 – 2 Marseille Beach Team
The Catalans may have crashed out of the Euro Winners Cup running but a victory is a victory and they fought hard for it against Marseille in Friday’s play-offs.
The lead by a single goal for most of the game, until the third period when the goals suddenly started flowing. Each side scored twice to keep the one-goal lead intact, and Terrassa clinched the win.
Lady Terracina 0 – 4 Higicontrol Melilla
In a bid to end their time in Nazaré in as high a finishing position as possible Italians met Spaniards in a play-off match, in which Higicontrol Melilla asserted their dominance.
It was thanks to England number ten, Molly Clark, who netted a sublime hat-trick to sink Lady Terracina.
A strong performance from the Spanish side did something to distract them from the previous day’s exit, as they tasted victory once more.
ACD O Sotao 4 – 1 CFP Caceres
Nazaré’s ACD O Sotao took the chance to impress the home fans with a comfortable win over CFP Caceres, who were knocked out of the running by Lokrians Beach Club.
Sotao took the lead in the first period but an equalizer came just minutes later and the sides went into the first break on level terms.
The Spanish had no more goals in them, but local side did, as strikes from Rachel, Patricia and Rita took the win for Sotao.
PLAY-OFFS (17th place)
In the scrap for finishing positions at the bottom of the ranking, Red Devils from Poland scored ten to hand Nomme Kalju yet another defeat.
The Estonians played a second match later on in the day, making one last push for a win in Nazaré against Beach Soccer DTS Ede. But the Dutch held strong at the back and scored three to send Nomme Kalju home without picking up any points.
Red Devils also played a second game, beating Beach Soccer Zeeland by eight goals to six.
Remember that all games will be streamed live at beachsoocer.com/live!
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