Victory for honour

They were training seven days. The players of RK Zagreb wanted to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League at all costs. And then after the last training in the Campushalle of Flensburg they received the shocking news: HSV took the badly needed point from Pamplona.

“We were so disappointed,” said the Zagreb star Kiril Lazarov. Their coach, Lino Cervar, tried to get his team together again: “After a weak first round, we closed the Main Round against a top teams such as Flensburg.”

The 29:36 (15:16) defeat of Zagreb in Flensburg did not change much. “It was a victory for our honour,” said SG coach, Kent-Harry Andersson.

It was the turn of the Croatians who let their inhibitions drop in front of the opponents’ goal area. Zagreb were leading 8:5 after 15 minutes. At this point there were already signs of the good performance of the Flensburg goalkeeper, Dane Sijan. “He played his best game of the season,” said Kent-Harry Andersson happily. “He has worked so well in the last six weeks and he even put in some extra effort.”

With his 17 saves, the hosts switched the turbo on and took the lead at 11:10 (21st min) for the first time. No one could stop Alexander Petersson who scored his sixth goal that made the score 13:11.

The team talk helped in the halftime break. The Zagreb players could not hold SG back. The hosts were leading 22:16 just within a couple of minutes into the second half. When Lars Christiansen gave an assist to Johnny Jensen who dived in and made it 23:16, the Flensburg fans were already celebrating victory.

“Good game, good rhythm. The fans had something to enjoy,” said Blazenko Lackovic. “We will only focus on the German championship from now on.”