On the back of another vintage performance from left back Cristina Neagu, who scored 13 goals from 19 shots, CSM Bucuresti recorded a dominant 30:24 win against FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria in the Match of the Week.
The victory was the Romanian side's fifth win in seven matches of the EHF Champions League Women group phase 2022/23 – and they remain unbeaten at home this season.
GROUP A
MOTW: CSM Bucuresti (ROU) vs FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria (HUN) 30:24 (10:11)
- CSM secured their eighth win in 11 matches against FTC and their sixth in a row at home against their Hungarian rivals
- the key moment of the match was a late 7:0 run for CSM between the 46th and the 57th minutes, when the Hungarian side failed to score a goal for 11 minutes and 29 seconds
- the All-Star left back of the EHF EURO 2022, CSM’s Cristina Neagu, was named the Player of the Match of the Week. Neagu scored 13 goals and improved her overall tally this season to 53 goals – enough for second place in the top goalscorer standings
- Neagu, who now has a 963-goal tally in Europe's premier competition, needs only 37 goals to become the third player in history to hit the 1000-goal milestone, after right wing Jovanka Radicevic, who has 1,017 goals, and former centre back Anita Görbicz, who scored 1,016 times
- CSM are in a three-way battle for one of the top two places in the group, as they are tied with group leadersd Vipers Kristiansand on 11 points, one point ahead of Bietigheim, who drew against Brest
Neagu and Davidsen deliver excellent win
For 46 minutes, CSM Bucuresti looked like they had little to offer apart from another outstanding performance from Cristina Neagu. But everything changed when Neagu scored three unanswered goals, taking her match tally to 13 goals, and Norwegian goalkeeper Marie Davidsen saved shot after shot.
Neagu, who has had a quiet season so far in Europe's premier competition, bounced back in admirable fashion to move only two goals behind this season's top goalscorer, Buducnost’s Milena Raicevic. As CSM secured another important win, Davidsen finished the match with 12 saves and a 36 per cent save efficiency.
