The weather in Zagreb was not so great today, but that didn’t stop the female football players from scoring a lot of goals at the European Universities Games’ women’s football competition. It was especially interesting to see a rain of goals at Zaglebello and at Kustošija stadiums since the German and French players were in an especially good mood.
GROUP A
The German female football players from the University of Marburg won against the home team of the University of Zagreb with a score of 5:0 at Zagrebello Stadium. The Germans were in control from the start of the match and won the much deserved three points.
The German team did not expect such a great victory.
‘Before the match we had no idea what was expecting us, but my team played well and I am happy that we achieved such a victory. We want to win every match and we had that in mind before entering the pitch. I think that the rest of the tournament will be difficult, so we will continue to take it one match at a time, hoping that our dream will come true,’ said Tania Rocha Ferreira.
The captain of the University of Zagreb team, Ivana Stanić, was not happy with the performance of her team.
‘We will train harder and hope that in the next two matches we achieve better results. We could have been a lot better, we let them control the game and after that my players were fatigued. The other team was better prepared and they devised to win’
The University of Zagreb will play their next match tomorrow against Innsbruck, while Marburg has a day off.
GROUP B
The team from the University of Valencia won against the Norwegian school of economics with a score of 2:1 in Group B.
The Spanish players controlled the flow of the game by scoring two goals. Nieves Motoso Cifuentes and captain Alicia Moreno Gonzales both scored for their team. And just as we thought that would be the end result, Siri Jokstad from the Norwegian team scored a goal in the last seconds of the match.
“Yesterday’s and today’s results are not in our favour but I still think we played well and I am happy about that,” commented the captain of the Norwegian team Emilie Finnevolden.
The coach of the Norwegians Martin Gooderham said that they focused on staying strong and that he thought that they would score the one goal that they needed.
Valencia player Liliana Llopes Castillo commented: ‘In the first half it was very close. We had a lot of opportunities and I think luck was on their side. In the next match we will be even better and we are hoping to win’
GROUP C
The teams from the Netherlands and France have proved that neither wind nor the cloudy weather can ruin their mood at the European Universities Games. At NK Kustošija’ Stadium, the girls from the University of Montpellier (FRA) and Erasmus University Rotterdam (NED) measured their strengths. The University of Montpellier have proven to be the competition’s favourites at the European Universities Games due to their convincing 10:1 win.
They proved their dominance from the very beginning of the match, when Marion Romanelli scored for 1:0 in the second minute, and Valerie Gauvin for 2:0 a few minutes later, in the fifth minute. In the tenth minute, the referee awarded a penalty kick to Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Manon Commys scored for 2:1. After the free kick, everything went downhill for the Dutch. Morgane Courteille scored for 3:1 in the thirteenth minute, Lindsey Thomas for 4:1 in the twenty first and again for 5:1 in the twenty third, as well as in the twenty fourth minute, setting the score of 6:1. In the final minute of the first half, Valerie Gauvin scored her second goal for 7:1.
The ten minutes’ break was not enough for the Dutch to recover, so they continued conceding goals in the second half. In the very first minute of the second half, Bangols scored for 8:1, and Lea Mazucca for 9:1 in the forty third minute. The last goal was scored by Manon Bruno, who brought the match to an end with the score of 10:1. After the referee blew her whistle, the players greeted each other warmly and with smiles on their faces.
The Dutch said they looked forward to future challenges and that they played for fun and were always positive, no matter if they won or lost.
GROUP D
In the fierce clash tonight at Vrapče Stadium, the Russian State Ural University won against the University of Porto, the current women’s European university football champion, by 2:0.
The both goals were scored in the first half by Ural co-captain Zaliia Gazimova.
The first goal was scored after a free kick was awarded to the Ural team in the first minute of the match. After the match, Gazimova told us:
‘This was a very tough game ant the opposing teams tried to provoke us. The Portuguese played well, but we were simply better.’
The second half was full of Porto’s vigorous attempts, but without success. After the game, Porto’s players refused to make any comments on the game. They are playing tomorrow again at Vrapče, this time against the French from the University of Caen.
