Montpellier win on high level

After four matchdays the wheat is starting to separate from the chaff in Men’s Champions League. Only one team – title defender Ciudad Real – is still spotless, as Kiel made a draw in Kolding. Aside these teams, Löwen and Montpellier are leading the groups. PAOK and Fyllingen are still waiting for their first point. On Sunday Montpellier, Valladolid and Hamburg were the winners.

Group A:

Pick Szeged – Pevafersa Valladolid 23:30 (12:15)

By winning in Hungary, Valladolid overtook Szeged in the table with now five points – and Marko Krivokaic won the family duel against his brother Milorad. The Spanish team took the profit of the strong performance of goalkeeper Sierra. As Szeged was only leading in the very beginning, Valladolid turned the match very early. Szeged couldn’t come closer after the break, and the European cup winner from Spain won both points well deserved. “We only played well in the first 20 minutes”, Pick coach Dragan Djukic said: “We’ll have to work very hard to reach the round of the last 16.”Juan Pasztor, coach of Valladolid, wasn’t completely satisfied: “We started very weak, but then we were better organized than Szeged.” Topscorers were Katzirz (Szeged) and Entrerrios (Valadolid) with each seven goals.

Montpellier HB – Chechovski Medvedi 33:28 (19:14)

Montpellier again took the lead from Constanta (both six points) in group A thanks to the better goal difference. The victory against the physical strong team from Russia in a match on top levelcould have been even clearer than the final result. The two points are highly important for the French champion that played with more speed than Chechov. Best players for the host were Nikola Karabatic and goalkeeper Daouda Karaboué. Both imprinted the first halftime, as Montpellier was in lead clearly with 19:14. Even as two players of Montpellier had been suspended and the French had some problems in offence, Chechov missed the chance to come closer. “The match ran as we expected. It’s hard to play against Chechov, but we showed a good performance. But we could have won with a eight goal difference”; Karabatic said.

Group C:

FCK Handbold – HSV Handball 27:34 (16:20)

HSV is the first chaser of spotless Ciudad Real after matchday 4 and the victory at FCK with six points now, as the Danes and Zagreb both have four points. For the Germans it was the first away match in this season and they didn’t have problems in Farum. Again best player on HSV side was pivot Igor Vori with ten goals, Atlason and Atterhäll scored five goals for FCK. In minute 17 Hamburg had increased the lead to 12:7 and kept this distance until the middle of halftime two. Even as the strong Icelandic Atlason led the FCK matchplay very good, HSV decided the match in minute 45 at the score of 27:20. Thanks to Vori the gap was ten goals only six minutes later (31:21). Another factor for the victory was the strong performance of goalkeeper Johannes Bitter with 15 saves. “Due to our strong defence, we kept FCK under control. We played very concentrated – unlike to our last league match”, wing player Torsten Jansen said. In the Bundesliga HSV had lost their first match in this season in Göppingen on Thursday.