Three tickets to the EHF European Cup Women Last 16 booked

• Zwartwoud Kwiek beat RK Hadzici in a home double-header; in the first leg the Dutch side turned a 15:17 deficit into a 26:21 advantage; in the second leg they conceded only 14 goals, while netting 35 times to clinch a 61:35 aggregate win

• HK Slovan Duslo Sala took two comfortable wins in their home double-header against Faroese club VIF (29:24 and 36:26), advancing with an aggregate score of 65:50; Mária Holešová scored 10 goals across both matches

• O.F.N. Ionias also advanced, beating Clube Jovem Almeida Garrett 55:47 on aggregate in their double-header in Greece; Andreza Costa Almeida and Saska Davidovic were top scorers for Ionias with 11 goals

• ZORK Bor and HC DAC Dunajská Streda won their first leg matches comfortably; Bor beat HB Sint-Truiden 38:22 at home with Mia Nedeljković scoring 12 goals; HC DAC Dunajská Streda won their match in the Netherlands 35:26 against JuRo Unirek VZV

• ZRK Mlinotest Ajdovscina beat Anagennisi Artas by eight goals in Greece (38:30); the Serbian side relied on a superb goalkeeping performance from Zala Vuk, who saved 11 shots (30 per cent save efficiency); Urša Zelnik scored 10 goals for the winning side

• RK Ruma beat MADx WAT Atzgersdorf in their first leg at home 30:24 on Sunday; Jovana Vasiljković saved 19 shots (40 per cent) for the Serbian side; while Tamara Kocic and Masa Zivkovic (Ruma) as well as Nicol Nejedlikova (Atzgersdorf) scored eight times

• Haukar comfortably beat RK "Levalea 2010" Nikšic 42:24 in their first leg of a double-header in Iceland with Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir the top scorer with 10 goals; the sides meet again on Monday evening in the reverse fixture

Portuguese comeback not enough

SSV Brixen Südtirol and Madeira Andebol SAD met for their first leg match in Italy this weekend. After a close 25 minutes, the hosts built a 16:13 gap at half-time, which they held until the 40th minute. A 3:0 run, boosted by a couple of goals from Helen Nascimiento, levelled the match shortly after.

In an exciting final phase of the match, consecutive goals from Marie Aichner for the Italian side proved the deciding factor. Madeira Andebol SAD could only cut the deficit to one goal, with Brixen winning 26:25. Sarah Hilber and Neide Duarte were the top scorers for the two sides, each scoring eight goals.

The teams meet again in Funchal on Saturday for the decider.

Main photo © Johan Wolff