Spanish quartet completed

Pevaversa Valladolid is the twelveth team which had for the last 16 in the Men’s Champions League. But thanks to the draw their Saturday’s opponent Constanta is nearly through, too, and need only one point from the last two matches. In the other fivegames on Saturday all the favoured teams have taken the points. In group C Hamburg and Zagreb still go parallel with each 12 points now.

Group A:

Chechovski Medvedi – Pick Szeged 39:30 (20:12)

By losing in Chechov the wonder for Pick Szeged need to be bigger an bigger. Only by winning both matches (including a victory against Constanta with more than a three goal difference) and by hoping that Constanta lose against PAOK, the Hungarians can reach the next stage. Szeged only led in the beginning, before the already qualified team of Chechov (12 points now) improved and overran the Hungarians. Chechov coach Vladimir Maximov: “Szeged caused us some problems in the first match, so we prepared very concentrated. Our goalkeeper played excellent, and now we remain on our way – our objective is still to reach the Final4.” For Szeged coach Dragan Djukic „the number of mistakes were too high. You can’t win in Chechov, when you cause so many individual mistakes.” Top scorers were Kovalev (8 goals for the Russians) and Katzirz (10 goals for Szeged).

Pevafersa Valladollid- HCM Constanta 26:26 (15:11)

Thanks to the point against the Romanians, Valladolid has reached the last 16 as the fourth Spanish team – so the Asobal quartet has completed. Constanta (7 points) need only one more point to go on. The match was equal until the score of 10:10, before Valladolid scored a 5:1 series to the halftime score 15:11. Constanta turned the match in the middle of the second half, before again the Iberians took the lead. Valladolid goalkeeper Tomas Svensson made an incredible save in the last minute, but was overwhelmed some seconds before the end by Isztvan Schuch, who equalized to the final result of 26:26.

Group C:

Allingsas HK – HSV Hamburg 27:37 (13:17)

The victory was never endangered, the 80 HSV spectators celebrated after the final whistle: HSV is still number two in group C after the match in Sweden, as Allingsas remains with only two points. Top scorer for the Germans was Domagoj Duvnjak with seven goals, Bernhardsson and Rylander scored each five times for Allingsas. During the first 29 minutes (15:13) it was hard work for Hamburg, but in between nine minutes the favoured team extended the lead decisively to 23:15. All HSV players hit the back of the net, the biggest distance was the final score of 37:27. “The victory was well deserved, even concerning the final distance of ten goals. It was a pretty hard start, but then we dominated the game”, HSV sportive director Christian Fitzek said.

HC CO Zagreb – Fyllingen Handball 35:23 (16:11)

Two hours after HSV had won at Allingsas clearly, Zagreb equalized by points again by beating still pointless team of Fyllingen with an even bigger gap – both teams now have 12 points on their account. CL top scorer Kiril Lazarov again played fantastic and scored another ten goals to now 62 in total. The Norwegians could only keep up in the first 20 minutes, before the “Zagreb express” started – and the Croats didn’t give a chance toFyllingen. Svend Magnus Pettersen and Andreas Gjeitrem scored each eight goals for the Norwegians, the new Zagreb pivot Gyula Gal scored four times.

Group D:

KIF Kolding – Vardar Skopje 28:21 (15:9)

For at least 24 hours Kolding secured the third place in group D by an easy victory against the Macedonians with now 10 points, one point ahead of Leon (playing against Kiel on Sunday). Thanks to their clearly better defense and the strong wing players Simon Jensen and Boris Schnuchel, the Danish champion could save some powers for the next matches after the break (halftime result 15:9). Later on the clear victory was never in danger.

FC Barcelona Borges – Amicitia Zürich 37:26 (18:11)
It was relatively easy for FC Barcelona Borges to extend the lead in group D to now 14 points. Amicitia was close to the favourite until minute 14 and the score of 8:6, but then Barca paced up until the halftime result of 18:11 – the one sided match was decided very early.After the break Xavier Pascual, coach of FC Barcelona, was able to rotate his players. The seven goals of Ugalde were his individualbest scoring in this Champions League season. Zürich’s top scorer was Toni Kern with seven goals. His opinion about the match: “It was very good to play against Barcelona. During the first part of the first half we played well. Barca defended very well. Obviously they are a better team than we are.” His coach Robert Nijdam was “really proud of how we played. We had a tough opponent ahead, one of the best teams in Europe. We are learning a lot playing against big teams like Barcelona or Kiel.” Barca player Cristian Ugalde said: “Maybe we started weak in defense, but we improved. My record in the Champions Leaguedoesn’t matter to me. Next week we have two very important matches how Ciudad Real and León.” For Barca coach Xavi Pascual “it was a simple game from minute 15 on. Amicitia had a very aggressive defense. I think my players have put a little on the handbrake, as the day before we trained very hard.”