With the final international matches of the season over, the Borussia Dortmund women’s handballers are entering the business end of the season. There are only a few weeks left until their final game of the campaign against Bayer Leverkusen on 27 May. The season-run in starts with a Bundesliga game against BSV Sachsen Zwickau at Halle Wellinghofen at 19:00 CET on Saturday.
BVB are the heavy favourites for the clash with the Eastern Germans. Borussia have won every single meeting since the visitors were promoted in summer 2021 and claimed a 33-22 victory in the reverse fixture at the start of December. BSV occupy 11th place in the table, while BVB sit in third position – the roles are therefore clearly defined. However, coach Henk Groener will be without an important performer: Zoë Sprengers is carrying a knock and will miss out.
“Zoë is doing what her injury permits but she won’t be ready to play yet. We’re monitoring it day by day,” said the BVB coach, who has not been able to work as he would have liked recently. “Without the international players, we’ve not been able to work on team tactics. There is now only one day left to prepare, as the Germany team played in Greece only on Wednesday. That’s very little, but we’ll give everything in order to perform with full focus on Saturday.”
His opposite number on the sideline is Norman Rentsch, who coached Borussia for a short spell in 2018 and has been in charge of Zwickau since 2019. Groener said of the opposition: “They of course want to pick up points in order to stay up, and so it’ll be important for us that we’re able to be defensively present and make use of our tempo play from the outset.”
One player to be wary of is Zwickau’s Ema Hrvatin. The Slovenian is her team’s top goalscorer by some distance with 106 goals and poses a real danger from the centre-left of the backcourt. The 23-year-old is the linchpin for this Zwickau team. As for the BVB squad, it will be a very special game for Lena Hausherr who spent two years playing for the Saxony side.
The match can be watched free of charge on the streaming platform Sportdeutschland.TV, with Uwe Kisker and Sascha Staat the commentary duo. Tickets can be purchased via the BVB Online Ticket Shop, while there will also be a ticket office open on the evening. Further match information can be found in the digital programme.