Debutant victory and hard work for Ciudad Real

Debutant St. Petersburg and three time title holder Renovalia Ciudad Real are the first winners of the new VELUX EHF Men's Champions League season which started on Wednesday.

Group D:

HC St. Petersburg – Bosna Sarajevo 32:27 (11:12)

Thanks to a total improvement after the break debutant St. Petersburg took their first victory in their first ever match in VELUX EHF Men's Champions League. The Bosnians gave the points from their hands by making too many technical mistakes after the break. The match in Russia was the opener of this VELUX EHF Men's Champions League season.

Bosna controlled the game in the first 30 minutes and could even have led with a clearer result at the break. The second half began the same as Bosna again extended the lead to 17:13 in minute 37. But then St. Petersburg woke up, scored a series of 8:2 goals and had turned the match at the result of 21:19 thanks to in total nine goals of Sindin. The resistance of Bosna was broken, the Russian runner-up celebrated a perfect start, as Bosna was totally disappointed because they lost a game they shouldn’t lose. Top scorer for Sarajevo was Arnaudovski with seven goals.

Renovalia Ciudad Real – SG Flensburg-Handewitt 27:19 (7:9)

The final result looks much clearer than the run-down of the match was: Only in the last ten minutes Ciudad Real played dominant, before the Germans were a counterpart on eye-level. Thanks to the saves of goalkeeper Dan Beutler, the aggressive and movable defense and the goals of excellent wing player Lasse Svan Hansen (in total four) Flensburg was in lead most of the first half, as Ciudad Real made an enormous number of mistakes and played quite nervous. The 9:7 for the guest was a deserved halftime result – but then coach Talant Dushebajew seemed to have found the right words during the break.

The match changed totally, it took only ten minutes to turn the page – and Ciudad was in lead 13:11. Newcomer Kiril Lazarov was an outstanding shooter and became top scorer with eight goals, Julien Aguinagalde (4 goals) fought hard for every centimetre at the six metre line and the Ciudad goalkeepers really improved. But the duel didn’t have an early decision, as Flensburg fought hard and reduced the gap to only one goal ten minutes before the end (17:16).

But then ironically a Red Card for Viran Morros who had hit Svan Hansen with his head in minute 52. was the key factor for the clear final result: The spectators shouted as loud as they could, Flensburg made one mistake after the other and Ciudad Real punished them by counter attack after counter attack like an express train. In the end the distance was eight goals – and the result of the second half speaks for itself: 20:10 for the Spanish Champion.

Statements after the match:

Per Carlen, coach Flensburg: “I think we played well for 45 minutes but the last 15 minutes we didn’t played with head and by playing like this it’s impossible to win in Ciudad Real.”

Tobias Karlsson, player Flensburg: “We played a good first half and we are very happy about that. But in the second half we did a lot of things that you don’t must do against Ciudad Real. And I think the difference of goals was too big in the end.”

Kiril Lazarov, top scorer Ciudad Real: “I’m happy about the first victory in the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League. I think we played very bad in the first half but as we have three new players and the system in Ciudad Real is not so easy, I’m happy because we played better in the second haöf against a good team. I’m sure that we will play better in future.”

Talant Dujshebaev, coach Ciudad Real: “I think that starts against a big team like Flensburg is difficult and we started a little bit too nervous. We didn’t play good and Flensburg showed a magnificent defense and their goalkeeper made a great job. At the second half we played better”.