Bjerringbro-Silkeborg humiliate Kolding

Bjerringbro-Silkeborg ought to be able to travel to Russia for their crucial VELUX EHF Champions League match against St. Petersburg Sunday with a considerable boost to their self-confidence after Wednesday night´s top match in the Danish league against KIF Kolding.

Not only did Bjerringbro-Silkeborg win the match in Jysk Arena in Silkeborg and took over the first place in the league. Through a win of no less than 28:18 they actually humiliated the ambitious Kolding team.

Both teams now have 19 points after 11 matches, but with BSV as the better team because of the win Wednesday.

Kolding, who had lost their first point of the season through a 25:25 draw at home against EHF Cup colleagues Team Tvis Holstebro on Saturday, were short of Swedish playmaker Lukas Karlsson, while Danish international Bo Spellerberg was bothered by shoulder problems, but those setbacks were not enough to explain the difference between the two teams.

After an equal start Bjerringbro-Silkeborg managed to take a three goal lead through four goals in succession, making it 7:4 mainly due to a strong defence, where they had particular success with keeping Kolding´s Swedish star Kim Andersson out of the game.

During the entire 60 minutes Andersson only managed to score on 7 meter shots, and he even missed one of those. Furthermore, an impressive performance by Danish international Jannick Green in the Bjerringbro-Silkeborg goal played a great part in the home team being up 13:9 at half time.
 
Bjerringbro-Silkeborg´s fine defensive play and Green´s great performance continued from the start of the second half, where the hosts managed to increase the lead to 19:9 and 24:12.

In spite of Spellerberg´s shoulder problems, Kolding tried to send him on, but that did not help the ambitious team much, and meanwhile things did not get any better for guests, as former Danish international Joachim Boldsen sustained an apparently serious ankle injury in the 39th minute.

Encouraged by a full hall, Bjerringbro-Silkeborg carried on, and had Kolding´s goalkeeper Kasper Hvidt not improved his performance during the second half, things might have turned out even worse for the visitors.

At the end, then, the score board showed a ten goal win for Bjerringbro-Silkeborg. A result which stunned most of Handball Denmark…

“Our defence did very well, and at the same time were we good in our fast-breaks.

"We had studied the way Tvis had kept Kim (Andersson, ed.) out of the game on Saturday, and we succeeded with pretty much the same tactics,” said Danish international Rasmus Lauge from Bjerringbro-Silkeborg (pictured right) to the TV station TV2 Sport after the match.

Playmaker Chris Jørgensen became top scoring player for Bjerringbro-Silkeborg with 10 goals, 6 out of which were on 7 meter shots. Former Danish international Lasse Boesen scored 6 for Kolding who may find some consolation in the fact that there are still ten days until they are playing the first leg of their qualification tie for the EHF Cup Group Phase away against Russia´s Permskie Medvedi.