A friendly match between the youth national teams of Russia, headed by Olga Akopyan, and China was held on Saturday. Russian players won with a score of 29:24, the centre back of HC Lada Anastasia Blagova scored six goals and became the top-scorer of the meeting.
3 August
U-19 national team of China — U-19 national team of Russia — 24:29 (11:18)
— We are satisfied with the first half on the whole, the second one can be considered as unsatisfying. We played quite well in the first half. We were getting involved during the first 5-7 minutes, getting used to the ball, adapting, girls’ little excitement had an impact. Defense pleased sometimes. Our players heard what we've been telling them within two days and tried to implement it in the game, but, of course, it wasn’t without mistakes. But their desire was evident, each of them wanted to express herself.
— In the second half, probably, fatigue affected or a significant advantage played a cruel joke on us, we were leading 8-9 balls during the match. We asked girls not to stop in any way, not to think that the game was over, continue playing and increase the gap. It must be said that we made a lot of losses during the entire match, especially in the second half. And the Chinese players often punished us for it with rapid counterattacks. Our rivals scored the main amount of goals exactly in fast breaks after our losses, — Olga Akopyan said.
Photo: the HFR press
