Szilágyi brings Kiel’s third victory

Few players, big success: THW Kiel win their third game in the Champions league Group B. Last year’s winners are heading for the next round with six points now.

“The most important thing is that we won this match and all the players come home without injuries,” said coach Noka Serdarusic after the 29:25 (21:14) in Constanta.

The best Kiel player was Austrian national player, Viktor Szilágyi with 10 goals. Without Karabatic, Anderson, Zeitz, Jicha and Pajovic (not allowed to play in Champions League) Serdarusic had to bring a complete new backcourt with Szilágyi, Lund and Lövgren.

What nobody could expect with this mini-squad and after a kind of horror-trip (17 hours from Kiel to the Black Sea): after 30 minutes and 21:14, it was already clear that Kiel would be the winners.

After the break Kiel only had to do little to control the match and this was enough. After the 5:5 THW scored six times in a row. Then a “private duel” between Szilágyi and the Romanian Muresan started.

Constanta meant no danger for THW. There was only a little tension after 16:12, but Thierry Omeyer and the Lundström-Szilágyi duo were in good form.

Even as Kiel did not score a goal for seven minutes after a 22:15 in halftime, the Romanians made a lot of technical mistakes. They did not have the strength to come close to the Germans.

“We played well,” said manager Uwe Schwenker, “but in the second halftime we had problems with Constanta’s defence and we were out of power. But as we were leading very clearly at the break, there was no danger especially as Szilágyi had a great first 30 minutes.”

The Austrian, however, was not willing to take all the credit alone: “All the others helped me to score. Without them I could not have played so well.”