Facts and figures of the quarter-finals first leg

The first leg of the VELUX EHF Champions League Quarter-finals was completed on Sunday, throwing up some surprising results. Before the re-matches next weekend, here are some facts and figures.

All four winners of the Group Stage are still involved in the quarter-finals, and two of them (HSV Hamburg and Vive Targi Kielce) won their respective away matches at Flensburg and Skopje. FC Barcelona Intersport (at Madrid) and MKB Veszprem (at Kiel) were defeated.

The largest victory of the first leg:

HSV Hamburg won their away match at Flensburg by a margin of six goals (32:26) the biggest win of the four matches, followed by Atletico Madrid’s home victory against Barcelona (+5/25:20). The duels Metalurg Skopje vs. Kielce (+2/25:27) and Kiel vs. Veszprem (+1/32:31) were much closer. 

The biggest gaps closed since the implementation of the current playing system in the 2009/10 season:

If the losing teams need some hope ahead of the return leg, they should have a look at Füchse Berlin. The German side turned an 11-goal deficit around from the first leg of the quarter-final last season against Ademar Leon (ESP).

Füchse made it to the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne thanks to the greater number of away goals after a 23:34 defeat at Leon, followed by a 29:18 win at home.

The second biggest goals chase was four by Ciudad Real in their quarter-final against HSV Hamburg in the 2009/10 season (22:26, 35:27).

In the 12 quarter-final pairings since 2010, only four teams have lost the first leg and made it to Cologne, one of the teams, Ciudad Real, managed to turn it around twice: Not only in 2010 against Hamburg (22:26, 35:27), but also in 2012 against Cimos Koper (23:26, 31:24).

Besides Füchse Berlin (2012 against Leon), Rhein Neckar Löwen were the second German team to go to Cologne after losing the first leg.

However, they are a special case, as they were the only club by now to do this in an away match. After losing against Montpellier MAHB 27:29 at home in 2011, they won in France by 35:26 to seal their place in Cologne.

Montpellier (never a participant at the VELUX EHF FINAL4) are really the unluckiest of all teams in the quarter-finals, as they caught-up a five goal deficit against Chekhovskie Medvedi (27:32) by the exact same result (32:27) in 2010, but then lost the decisive penalty shoot-out.

The largest ever goal difference occurred since the 2009/10 season were two identical results in 2011: Ciudad Real won their first leg at Flensburg 38:24, while Hamburg also beat Chekhovski Medvedi at home by a 14 goal margin, 38:24.

Points, points, points:

As MKB Veszprem and FC Barcelona Intersport lost their respective first leg matches of the current quarter-finals, Vive Targi Kielce are the most successful team of all eight participants by now, with 12 victories in 13 matches.

The Polish champions had only been defeated by Pick Szeged in the first leg of their Last 16 clash.

Barcelona and Veszprem follow in this ranking by 11 victories and 2 defeats.

The overall results of the eight quarter-final participants:

Vive Targi Kielce: 12 victories – 0 draws – 1 defeat
MKB Veszprem: 11–0–2
FC Barcelona Intersport: 11– 0–2
THW Kiel: 10-0-3
HSV Hamburg: 9-2-2
SG Flensburg-Handewitt: 8-3-2
Metalurg Skopje: 8-0-5
Atletico Madrid 7-1-5

Home and away victories and draws:

Only eight of the 140 matches this season ended in a draw, none of which were in the quarter-finals first leg.

The overall statistics of this season’s 140 matches of Group Phase, Last 16 and first leg of the quarter-finals stand at: 84 home victories – 8 draws – 48 away victories.

Goals, goals, goals:

The largest number of goals:

None of the four first leg matches in the quarter-finals made it to the top of this ranking.

The highest scoring games of the round were the matches between THW Kiel and MKB Veszprem with 63 goals and Flensburg vs Hamburg with 58 goals.

Matches with the highest number of goals in the current season:

77 goals: THW Kiel – Sävehof IK 43:34 (GP)
75 goals: Kadetten Schaffhausen – Füchse Berlin 35:40 (GP)
74 goals: SG Flensburg-Handewitt – Montpellier MAHB 37:37 (GP)
72 goals: Chekhovskie Medvedi vs. THW Kiel 37:35 (L16)
69 goals: Sävehof IK – THW Kiel 29:40 (GP)
69 goals: Chekhovskie Medvedi – Partizan Beograd 38:31(GP)
68 goals: Partizan Beograd – SG Flensburg-Handewittt 31:37 (GP)
68 goals: HSV Hamburg – Montpellier MAHB 35:33 (GP)
68 goals: RK Zagreb – Kadetten Schaffhausen 38:30 (GP)

20 of 140 matches were won by a difference of ten and more goals, none so far in the knock-out stages.

The lowest number of goals this season:

The Spanish quarter-final duel of Atlético Madrid vs FC Barcelona Intersport was the fifth lowest number of goals in this season (45).

Although both Group Phase matches between Kielce and Metalurg were among the top 5 in this ranking, this time around the Polish and Macedonian champions ended with 52 goals between them.

Matches with the lowest number of goals:

39 goals: HCM Constanta – RK Pivovarna Lasko Celje 22:17 (GP)
41 goals: Vive Targi Kielce  - Metalurg Skopje 21:20 (GP)
43 goals: Ademar Leon -  MKB Veszprem 20:23 (L16)
44 goals: Metalurg Skopje – Vive Targi Kielce 21:23 (GP)
45 goals: Atletico Madrid – FC Barcelona Intersport 25:20 (QF)
46 goals: Metalurg Skopje – Dinamo Minsk 24:22 (L16)

Top scorers of the first leg of the quarter-finals:

Hungarian right back Laszlo Nagy rose above the rest in the first leg of the quarter-finals.

For the second time this season, the MKB Veszprem player scored double-figures, after ten goals in the Group Match at Atlético Madrid (27:26 for Veszprem).

In the thrilling duel at THW Kiel, Nagy found the net 11 times. Also the second best scorer in the first leg of the quarter-finals was part of the Kiel vs Veszprem clash, former MKB player Marko Vujin, who scored eight goals for Kiel.

11 goals: Laszlo Nagy (MKB Veszprem)
8 goals: Marko Vujin (THW Kiel)
6 goals: Petar Djordjic (SG Flensburg-Handewitt)
6 goals: Pascal Hens (HSV Hamburg)
6 goals: Blanzenko Lackovic (HSV Hamburg)
6 goals: Domagoj Duvnjak (HSV Hamburg)
6 goals: Joan Canellas (Atletico Madrid)
6 goals: Kiril Lazarov (Atletico Madrid)
6 goals: Siarhei Rutenka (FC Barcelona)
6 goals: Naumce Mojsovski (Metalurg Skopje)
5 goals: Renato Sulic (MKB Veszprem)
5 goals: Renato Vugrinec (Metalurg Skopje)

Overall top scorers after the first leg of the quarter-finals:

Hans Lindberg (HSV Hamburg) remains on the top position though he only scored twice at Flensburg.

Naumce Mojsovski (Metalurg Skopje) caught-up with second ranked Dane Anders Eggert (SG Flensburg-Handewitt), and Laszlo Nagy (MKB Veszprem) made the biggest jump after his eleven goals against THW Kiel.

1. Hans Lindberg (HSV Hamburg) 82 (2 last week)
2. Anders Eggert (SG Flensburg-Handewitt) 73 (5)
2. Naumce Mojsovski (Metalurg Skopje) 73 (6)
4. Gasper Marguc (RK Celje) 72
4. Laszlo Nagy (MKB Veszprem) 72 (11)
6. Holger Glandorf (SG Flensburg-Handewitt) 69 (1)
7. Siarhei Rutenka (FC Barcelona) 68 (6)
8. Renato Vugrinec (Metalurg Skopje) 66 (5)
9. Jure Dolenec (Gorenje Velenje) 64
9. Frantisek Sulc (Pick Szeged) 64
9. Michal Jurecki (Vive Targi Kielce) 64 (3)

In bold = players still involved in the competition, in brackets = number of goals scored in the first leg of the quarter-finals

Spectators:

Handball’s version of “el classico” between Atletico Madrid and FC Barcelona Intersport on Saturday was the VELUX EHF Champions League match with the second highest number of spectators in the current season, attended by 11.267 fans.

Defending champions THW Kiel against MKB Veszprem is among the Top 5 of this ranking with 10.250, the same number as in the Group Phase encounter of both top teams.

All seven home matches of THW Kiel are among the spectator’s Top 15, but in this season the defending champions are still below their German rivals Füchse Berlin.

Their duel against FC Barcelona Intersport in the Group Phase is still the match with the highest number of spectators this season.

13.333: Füchse Berlin – FC Barcelona Intersport (GP)
11.267: Atlético Madrid – FC Barcelona (QF)
10.250: THW Kiel – MKB Veszprem (GP)
10.250: THW Kiel – MKB Veszprem (QF)
10.000: RK Zagreb – FC Barcelona Intersport
10.000: THW Kiel – Atletico Madrid (GP)
9800: THW Kiel – Sävehof IK (GP)
9800: THW Kiel – Chekhovskie Medvedi (L16)
9400: THW Kiel – HCM Constanta (GP)
9000: Füchse Berlin – Atletico Madrid (L16)
9000: RK Zagreb – Dinamo Minsk (GP)
8853: Atlético Madrid – THW Kiel (GP)
8250: THW Kiel – RK Celje (GP)
8000: Montpellier MAHB – Ademar Leon (GP)
8000: Montpellier MAHB – SG Flensburg-Handewitt (GP)

GP = Group Phase, L16 = Last 16, QF = quarter-final