Nothing decided yet!

Men's Quarterfinals, first leg:

FC Barcelona – MKB Veszprem 33:27 (17:15)

13 goals of outstanding wing player Juanin Garcia make Barcelona dream of the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne. The Spanish team led the whole 60 minutes against Veszprem, and only had problems at the start of the second half, as Veszprem reduced the gap to 17:16 from Barca point of view. But a series of 10:4 goals for the CL record winner paved the way to the clear victory. Even as Veszprem fought hard after the break and goalkeeper Dejan Peric saved some important shots, the Hungarians couldn’t come closer anymore, specially as they had a lot of problems in attack. Then match was decided at the score of 29:23 – and Barca kept the distance until the end. Another match winner for the Catalans was goalkeeper Saric with 22 saves. Topscorer for Veszprem was Sulic with seven goals. Barca’s Hungarian player Laszlo Nagy said: “It was a game as we expected - including a strong Veszprem defense. Our goal was to win and we reached it. We are six goals ahead but we will go to Hungary to win. We know that public pressure will have on its track but this should motivate us to win.” His coach Xavier Pascual added: “It was a great game. I’m happy as we showed our real strength. Our goal will be to win in Hungary.”

HSV Hamburg-BM Ciudad Real 26:22 (11:8)

HSV did a great step towards the EHF FINAL4, but this result doesn’t ensure anything – concerning the home strength of Ciudad Real. After four consecutive defeats against the reigning champion Hamburg took the second victory against Ciudad Real in club’s history. The final result was well deserved as the Germans led nearly the whole match. After very close and equal first 27 minutes and a result of 8:8 HSV took the lead and extended it to 11:8 at the break. To the surprise of more than 15.000 spectators HSV started excellent in the second half. As Ciudad made too many mistakes in offense and missed too many chances against outstanding goalkeeper Per Sandström HSV increased the gap furthermore to six (14:8) and later on to seven (17:10) goals. The Spaniards lost their rhythm totally and scored only ten goals in 40 minutes. But thanks to three consecutive goals they returned quickly and then kept the match equal. Even after a timeout of coach Martin Schwalb HSV wasn’t as strong as before, as Ciudad defense improved and the Spaniards reduced the number of mistakes. And asCiudad started their famous counter attacks – which were stopped before by HSV completely – the distance decreased. Seven minutes before the end the intermediate result was 21:19 and the reigning champion was close to turn the match. But then HSV improved in offense again, scored even two goals with one player less on the field. The distance was five goals again (26:21) nine second before the end. Ciudad coach Talant Dushebajew took his time out card and Garcia scored the 22^nd and last goal for his team by penalty with the final whistle. Nothing is decided yet –was the opinion of both coaches. “Our defense stood well in the whole match, our goalkeeper played world class. I’m satisfied with the result,” HSC coach Martin Schwalb said. Talant Dushebajew added: “We knew before that there’s only a littledifference between both teams. Sandström played incredible and everybody saw that Hamburg had more will to win the game.”

Rhein Neckar Löwen –THW Kiel 28:29 (13:15)

„It’s only halftime, yet, and we still have all chances to go to the EHF FINAL4. We can win at Kiel, if we improve in attack,“ Löwen coach Ola Lindgren said despite the defeat on home soil against Kiel. His team was close to the victory, but eight seconds before the end Kiel top scorer Filip Jicha scored his eighth and last goal and decided the game. Even as his team had won away, for Kiel coach Alfred Gislasson nothing is decided: “It’s no advantage to have a match on home soil in Champions League. We missed the great chance to go to the second leg with a clearer result. No we have to fight hard to reach the EHF Final4.” Both teams had problems in attack and were strong in defense in this German-German duel in the quarterfinals. And both goalkeepers were the best players of their teams. Specially Thierry Omeyer was the reason, why Kiel was in lead 15:13 at the break – as he saved 13 shots in the first 30 minutes. Kiel missed a lot of chances, but as Omeyer stood like a wall and the Löwen were weak in taking their opportunities, the halftime result was deserved. In between eight minutes Kiel extended the lead to 20:16 and were on the winner’s way. But then the Löwen showed their lion hearts and were cheered by 13.201 spectators in the sold-out SAP Arena. As goalkeeper Slawomir Szmal improved, the defense stood better and the counter attacks found the back of the net. 13 minutes before the end Löwen equalized at the 20:20 after four consecutive goals and took the lead at 21:20. The final stage was totally close, and thanks to improving Jicha Kiel took both points from Mannheim. Top Löwen scorer was Karol Bielecki with ten goals. “It’s nice to have won those two points, but we’ll have to fight hard in Kiel to reach the EHF FINAL4,” Omeyer said. “We have a lot of potential we didn’t use to day. So we’re going to Kiel to win their,” Löwen defense specialist Oliver Roggisch said.

The fourth first leg match of the quarterfinals Chechovski Medvedi – Montpellier HB will be played on Wednesday. Watch it live and free of charge on www.ehftv.com.