by Simon Daish

Victories from Georgina Pota, Shiho Matsudaira and Shan Xiaona resulted in a comfortable 1st leg win for the German team and coach Irina Palina is confident that her side will get the job done in front of the Berlin crowd on Friday 9th February

“All three of our players were highly motivated and went into the game with full concentration. Of course, 3-0 and a game-ratio of 9:2 is surely a big advantage. I know that I can rely on this team 100% and I am sure that we will confirm that on 9th February in front of our fans.” Irina Palina

Another club holding a 3-0 advantage after the opening round of quarter-finals action is Croatia’s Dr. Časl following a highly successful trip to France.

Now the pressure is on Cp Lyssois Lille Metropole in the 2nd leg with no room for error; Bernadette Szocs recently caused a major upset with her title win at the China Construction Bank 2018 ITTF-Europe Top 16 Cup, but can she defy the odds again and inspire the French outfit to a remarkable comeback in Zagreb?

Top seed KTS Tarnobrzeg is well positioned to qualify for the last four of the competition, however, the Polish team still has some work to do to achieve that goal with Austria’s Linz AG Froschberg still in with an outside chance of reaching the penultimate round. Linz trails Tarnobrzeg by a 3-1 margin and with the 2nd leg taking place in Poland the odds are very much in the latter team’s favour.

One further fixture will be played out on Saturday 10th February as Turkish side Bursa Büyükşehir Belediyespor welcomes Tennis de Table Saint Quentinois. The hosts lead the tie by a 3-1 scoreline.