Danish champions start with a draw

Danish champions – and one of Denmark’s two teams in the Men’s Champions League – GOG Svendborg TGI opened the Danish league season with a 24-24 draw at home against AaB Håndbold.

GOG were handicapped by being without Dennis Kirkegaard, Mikkel Hansen and Magnus Jernemyr, who were all injured, while Jacob Green was still suspended from last season.

AaB have signed Danish national team playmaker, Joachim Boldsen from SG Flensburg Handewitt during the summer break, and Boldsen played a considerable part in the success. The visitors started by taking a 3-0 lead, which was soon extended to 7-2. GOG then managed to score 8 goals in succession, though, changing the score to 10-7 in their favour, and at half time the difference was still 3 goals, 14-11.

Close end-game

In the second half, however, AaB slowly managed to catch up with the hosts again, and the guests even got a goal up a couple of times, before the 722 spectators saw it all end in a draw.

“Our major problem was the fact that we scored so few goals. In our training matches we have scored 33 goals on average, so it was strange that we only scored 24 this time. We should be able to score at least 30 goals every game,” said GOG´s experiences goalkeeper, Peter Henriksen, after the match.

Kasper Jørgensen was the top scorer for GOG with 7 goals. In the first group stage of the Champions League, the Danish champions will face former Champions League winners Portland San Antonio as well as Slovakian and Austrian champions, Tatran Presov and A1 Bregenz. Their first task in the tournament will be an away game against Portland San Antonio on 26 September.