Great Britain's women beat Finland 17-14 in Helsinki in the first leg of their European Handball Championship 2010 qualifying play-off.

Nina Heglund and Sophia Cannon scored three goals each but goalkeeper Sarah Hargreaves was GB's saviour.

Her 65% save ratio means GB have a chance of making the group stages after Saturday's second leg in Liverpool.

If GB win, they play Iceland, France and Austria in the qualifying group, with the finals in Denmark and Norway.

"Sarah was world class today, and with that save rate Finland were really struggling," said head coach Jesper Holmris.

"I'm pleased with the result. To have a three goal lead and home advantage on Saturday is great. It was much more than we expected.

"But we didn't play well. We had awesome fighting spirit and our defence was very strong, but we made a lot of mistakes.

"We missed a lot of easy chances, including three penalties, so we're looking forward to a better performance in Liverpool."

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