Tough fight for Barcelona

Two participants of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 2011 took away victories on Thursday evening: Hamburg won at Constanta easily, Barcelona had to fight hard to beat Schaffhausen.

Group A

Kadetten Schaffhausen (SUI) vs. FC Barcelona Intersport (ESP) 26:30 (13:14)

3,150 spectators meant a new spectator record for matches of the EHF Champions League in Switzerland. And for the fans in the new BBC arena every Swiss Franc was worth gold on Thursday evening.

Kadetten showed a brilliant performance for 42 minutes and were close to defeat the defending champions, who again had problems in taking the points - like last Saturday against Chambery.

The game was absolute equal until the score of 16:16 in minute 36, thanks to the strong defence including goalkeeper Remo Quadrelli. But after the 18:18 equalizer Barcelona scored seven straight goals to 25:18.

But who thought that the game was over was proven wrong. Supported by their cheering spectators, Kadetten fought until the end and reduced the gap to three goals, but then failed too often in attack. Even worse than the defeat was the severe knee injury of German Kadetten youngster Christian Dissinger, who might be out for weeks or months.

Barca now have the optimum of four points, Kadetten remain with two. Top scorers were Starczan with nine goals for the Swiss team and Tomas, who scored four times for the well-balanced Catalans.

Group C

HCM Constanta (ROU) vs. HSV Hamburg (GER) 26:34 (12:17)

Despite missing some injured key players HSV Hamburg did not have any problems in Buzau. The means of the host were not strong enough to stop the German champions. As HSV now have 4 points on their account, Constanta are still waiting for their first point.

Top scorers in this one-sided game were Alexandru Csepreghi with six goals for the Romanian champions and Domagoj Duvnjak with seven hits for Hamburg.

The game was equal until the 5:5, before Hamburg scored six straight goals and increased the gap to 16:8. But Constanta fought hard after the break, reduced the gap to only four goals (13:17) and had hope for a sensation until the score of 20:24 in minute 46. But then the Romanians lost their power and Hamburg easily decided the game.

Statements of the coaches:

Per Carlén (Hamburg): We were tired after four matches in eight days, but despite this tiredness we played well, especially in defence. In my opinion it was our best game in this season.

Ion Craciun (Constanta): We did not find the right means for the whole 60 minutes and the strong HSV defence forced us to many mistakes. Even though they missed some important players, Hamburg is one of the best teams in the world.