EHF Cup: Five teams through to Round 2

Although the new Men´s EHF Cup just started during past weekend with the matches of the first leg of Round 1, five teams already celebrated their qualification to Round 2 on Sunday. Thirteen more clubs entered the second-tier European club competition as they failed to make it through to the Group Phase of the VELUX EHF Champions League from the competition's qualification round.

Thanks to the double match agreement with their opponents Permskie Medvedi (RUS), HC Kumanovo (MKD), HC Meshkov Brest (BLR), Tauron Stal Mielec (POL) and Balatonfüredi KSE (HUN) played both legs during the weekend and used the home-court advantage to proceed to Round 2.

The “Bears” from Perm did not give any ground to Moldovan side PGU Kartina TV Tiraspol and won by 31 goals on aggregate score (37:20, 43:29). Mielec showed even more supremacy over Nilüfer Belediyspor from Turkey winning by 34 goals (42:29, 42:21).

Brest playing both matches at home against PlanetWin365 Conversano (ITA) only narrowly missed the 30 goals difference margin (38:19, 34:23). Kumanovo eliminated Bulgarian side HC Dobrudja (30:20, 35:26) and Balatonfüredi ousted Estonian HC Kehra despite losing the first leg (24:25, 27:22).

Two other teams managed to get very close to the next round as AC Diomidis Argous beat AEK Athens 30:18 in an all-Greek clash and RK Maribor Branik defeated HB Dudelange 39:24 in a match which turned out to be a sharp-shooting race between a 37-year old veteran Renato Vugrinec from the home side and Slovakian Martin Hummel from the Luxembourgian club with 13 goals each.

However, the first scoring record of a new-born competition was set by 21 year-old Alexandr Lupasco from Tiraspol who scored 16 goals in the second leg in Perm. The biggest crowd of the first weekend of the EHF Cup was in Kristianstad, Sweden where almost 3000 supporters pushed the home team IFK to a promising victory 31:24 over HC Sporta Hlohovec (SVK).

RK “Borac m:tel” Banja Luka (BIH) beat KH Besa Famiglia (KOS) 31:22 and made a big stride towards the Round 3. The winners of this match will pass by the Round 2 since RK Cimos Koper (SLO), originally drawn against them, were invited to take part in the Wild Card Tournament of the VELUX EHF Champions League.

Koper has not escaped their Round 2 destiny and as a last place finisher at the Wild Card Tournament will join EHF Cup at the same stage again together with other three teams from fourth places of the qualification groups of the European top-flight – HC Lovcen (MNE), HC Dinamo Poltava (UKR), SSV Loacher Bozen Südtirol (ITA) and the losers of the qualification matches Besiktas JK (TUR).

Eight more teams from second and third positions of the VELUX EHF Champions League qualification - RK Sloga (BIH), FC Porto Vitalis (POR), Tatran Presov (SVK), Maccabi Srugo Rishion Le Zion (ISR), St. Raphael Var Handball (FRA) and Orlen Wisla Plock (POL) will be seeded for the Round 3 – and will join a half-dozen consisting from three German clubs (Frisch Auf Göppingen, Rhein-Neckar Löwen and SC Magdeburg), two Spanish (BM Aragon, Naturhouse La Rioja) and HBC Nantes (FRA).

The first leg of the Round 2 will be played on 13/14 October, the second leg one week later on 20/21 October 2012. The winners proceed to the final qualification stage before the Group Phase, Round 3, where they are placed together with the 14 top seeded teams. The fixtures will be drawn on Tuesday 23 October 2012.

Find more information on the 2012/13 Men’s EHF Cup HERE.