Seventh victory for Füchse Berlin

Thanks to an easy-earned victory at Swiss champions Kadetten Schaffhausen, Füchse Berlin secured their second consecutive victory in the VELUX EHF Champions League in only four days – after beating Barcelona on home ground on Sunday.

While Berlin now still can hope to finish first in Group D, the defeat was a setback for Kadetten after their clear home victory against Szeged in the last week. Schaffhausen remain on four points, equal with the Hungarian rivals, who host Minsk on Saturday. So finally the decision about the fourth participant of the Last 16 from this Group will be taken in the last round, when Kadetten play at Zagreb, while Szeged play at Berlin.

Füchse might already know on Saturday, if the second position is the highest goal they can reach – if Barcelona beat Zagreb, they cannot be overtaken anymore.

Group D:

Kadetten Schaffhausen (SUI) vs. Füchse Berlin (GER) 35:40 (16:21)

Thanks to a strong opening period of Russian striker Konstantin Igropulo, Berlin easily forged ahead to 7:4 and 11:6, while Schaffhausen was too hectic in attack and to open in defence.

But a two minutes suspension against Füchse goalkeeper Silvio Heinevetter after a “freestyle wrestling” outside the goal area, turned around the roller coaster. The Swiss champions reduced the gap to only 10:12 and Füchse coach Dagur Sigurdsson stopped the downswing by a time-out. His team – boosted by their victory against Barcelona on Sunday – again increased the gap. Finally a direct free throw right into the triangle of the goal by Iker Romero secured a five goal halftime lead for Berlin.

But still Kadetten showed moral, character and fighting spirit: Watched by “his” German national team coach Martin Heuberger, young German Kadetten talent Christian Dissinger (in total eight goals) improved adding new hope to his team by crucial goals to the intermediate result of 24:26.

Füchse finally “survived” this weak period, marching ahead goal by goal in a match with bad defences on both sides. 13 minutes before the end, the difference were five goals at 32:27, only six minutes later the encounter was latest decided at 36:29 for the Germans. The spell was broken, the deal was sealed – and Croat Ivan Ninčević became top scorer with nine goals.