JDA Bourgogne Dijon Handball became the first French team in history to win the EHF European League Women, the second-tier European club competition, with a stunning comeback in the final against previous champions, Thüringer HC, which saw the French hosts erase a nine-goal deficit early in the second half to take a 29:25 win.

The EHF Finals Women, the business end of the competition, took place last weekend, on 16 and 17 May, in Dijon, France, with the hosts being joined by German side Thüringer HC, Danish powerhouse Viborg HK and Hungarian debutants side MOL Esztergom, in a winner-takes-all format.

Dijon’s path towards the trophy was hardly a walk in the park. In the semi-final against MOL Esztergom, the French side led by two goals at the break, only to find themselves down four goals after 42 minutes, 18:22.

It was a wake-up call for the hosts, which went on and scored 15 times in the last 17 minutes of the match to secure a 33:30 win, as Adriana Holejova, who was named the MVP of the EHF Finals Women, scored 10 goals, while left wing Nina Dury added seven goals.

As Viborg HK were looking for their fourth title in the second-tier European competition, they were denied the chance by Thüringer HC, as the German side mustered a hard-fought 26:24 win, after leading 11:10 at the break.

It was a break from Thüringer’s fast-paced style, especially as their star scorer, Johanna Reichert, only managed five goals from 12 shots, but the German side earned the win and the chance to become the first team in the history of the competition to secure back-to-back titles.

After Viborg secured the bronze medal match, with a 35:30 win over MOL Esztergom, it was time for the final and for the first 40 minutes, it looked like Thüringer will finally complete a feature which has never been seen in the EHF European League Women.

Thüringer played a blinder in the first half and had a nine-goal lead, 15:6, limiting the French side in attack, as a plethora of turnovers enabled the German side to jump to a lead which seemed unassailable.

But the tide started turning early in the second half, as Dijon came back more motivated and erased their mistakes from the first part of the match. By the 38th minute, the nine-goal lead was halved, 16:12.

After 47 minutes, Thüringer, with Reichert in better form, eight goals in the match, still had a three-goal lead, 21:18, but the pressure was getting bigger and bigger. The turning point came with a 5:0 unanswered run from Dijon, which finally took the lead, 22:21, with Holejova scoring a crucial goal.

Then French national team players Nina Dury and Lilou Pintat scored two goals each in the dying minutes, as the French side pulled away and never looked back, completing a fantastic comeback and securing a 29:25 win to secure the title.

Holejova, with 16 goals over the weekend, was named the MVP, while Dury, a player nominated for the IHF Young Female World Player of the Year in 2025, had 15 goals in total, with eight in the final, as Dijon found the right balance in the sweetest of spots.

Reichert was the top scorer of the season, with 111 goals, one more than in the previous season, breaking her own record, as she will be leaving for Romanian side Gloria Bistrița from this summer.

Dijon also became the first French side to win the EHF European League Women, with only one team getting close to the trophy, Metz Handball, which lost the final against Danish side Team Tvis Holstebro in the 2012/13 season.

Photo credit: EHF / JDA Bourgogne Dijon Handball