Flensburg secure second place

SG Flensburg-Handewitt rank first in group D after part one of Round 10. Thanks to the 25:18 (13:9) victory the Germans have already secured second place in their group ahead of Zagreb and will therefore have the home right in the second leg of the Last 16.

If Ciudad Real lose in Constanta on Thursday, Flensburg will win this group, but a draw is enough for the Spaniards to become number one.

Although they did not play with full speed and full power, Flensburg did not have any problems with the Bosnians who had won their last two matches and now remain on fourth position.

Only in the starting phase Bosna was on eye level at scores of 6:6 and 9:9. Thanks to four straight goals Flensburg lead 13:9 at the break – and extended the gap decisively to 20:12.

But then coach Ljubomir Vranjes substituted a lot, gave playing time to youngsters in order to save his key players' energy. The lead was never endangered even as Bosna reduced to 22:17.

“Sometimes we were standing in our own way,” Flensburg coach Vranjes said: “But we fought hard so we could decelerate in the end as everything was decided.”

On the other side Bosna assistant coach Danijel Ridic hopes that “we remain on the fourth position. You could see that our young team was lacking experience, as we made too many mistakes in attack.”

Top scorers were Anders Eggert (six goals for Flensburg) and Medic and Celika with each four goals for Bosna.