Double German strike, crucial Celje's win

With three Round 4 matches the VELUX EHF Champions League continued on Thursday including two expected German victories and a surprising and even more crucial away win of Celje at Ukraine.

Group A:

HC Motor Zaporozhye (UKR) vs. Celje Pivovarna Lasko (SLO) 29:32 (14:11)

The engine of Motor Zaporozhye has severe problems after a perfect start in the Group Phase – and maybe they still were shocked by the clear defeat against Veszprem last week. After the draw at Löwen and the home victory against Zagreb, the Ukrainian champions lost their second match in a row – and now have been passed by their Slovenian opponent in the ranking after this crucial match in the race for reaching the Last 16.

Despite eight goals from ten attempts by Oleg Skopintsev and another eight goals of intermediate team captain Sergey Onufriyenko, Motor gave a possible victory from their hands in the final stages of a match, which had been on the eye level until the 26:26 after an intermediate 4:0 series of Celje from 14:17 to 18:17, before Celje’s top scorer Gasper Marguc (eight goals), Sebastian Skube (an overall of six goals like Nemanja Zelenovic) and Luka Zvizej scored the decisive goals to be ahead by 29:26.

“We played badly in the second half and missed too many clear chances. That was a reason why we lost and maybe our poor performance at Veszprem is another reason,” Onufriyenko said – an opinion shared by his coach Sergey Bebeshko: “We were fighting, but some players felt a certain pressure of that kind of competition's level. The key moment for losing the match was when we missed three 100 percent chances at 25:26.”

The only weak point for the Slovenian runners-up was the injury of Ziga Mlakar. But still Celje’s coach Vladan Matic – a candidate for becoming Serbian national team coach for the 2014 EHF EURO - was satisfied: “This was a very important game for both teams. Motor was better in the first half, scoring five goals by counter-attacks. But in the second half we were more concentrated and at that time we improved in our own fast-breaks.”

Top scorer Gasper Marguc added: “We, Zagreb and Motor will fight for the third and fourth place in this group.” In this race Celje at the moment have the better cards with four points on their account.

Rhein-Neckar Löwen (GER) vs. St. Petersburg HC (RUS) 31:17 (14:8)

Expectedly and fully deservingly Rhein Neckar Löwen took their first home victory in the Group Phase after their opening draw against Zaporozhye. By five points on their account now, the German side managed to climb onto the second position ahead of Zagreb and Celje. St. Petersburg were taught another lesson – and at the return of coach Dmitry Torgovanov to his former club, the Russian side was hopeless again.

Thanks to goalkeeper Niklas Landin and a solid rock defence, which allowed St. Petersburg only eight goals in the first 30 minutes, the deal was sealed already at the break. Latest when the distance was double-figured for the first time at 20:10, leaving Löwen coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson started a huge rotation to save his players’ powers for more difficult tasks. And one change even imprinted the match: Goran Stojanovic saved more shots than Landin before the break – so the Löwen goalkeepers reached a saving percentage of 50 percent.

St. Petersburg tried everything to decelerate the speed in attack – but when Löwen managed to steal the balls they started their counter-attacks, unstoppable for the Russians, who caused eleven turnovers.

Top scorer of the match was Löwen team captain Uwe Gensheimer, who received a special “cheering treatment” by the fans, who hope that he will extend his contract at Löwen side.

Group D:

HSV Hamburg (GER) vs. HK DROTT Halmstad (SWE) 39:30 (18:14)

After Aalborg had set the first sign in this group by taking both points from Velenje on Wednesday, HSV Hamburg easily defended their top position with a clear win against Halmstad.

As the Swedish champions still wait for their first victory in this competition, the defending winners are highly close to an early qualification for the Last 16 with the optimum of eight points on their account after four matches.

But the Swedish team stood strong against the clearly more experienced German side, as in minute 36 the gap was only three goals at 18:21, mainly because of the superb performance of goalkeeper Robert Martin Bladh, who saved an overall of 13 shots. But he was even topped by Danish goalkeeper Marcus Cleverly between the HSV bars, who was cheered by standing ovations, when he left the court after 42 minutes and incredible 18 saves in this time.

On the other side the match was something like a private duel of the Hamburg wing players Kentin Mahe and Stefan Schröder to become the top scorer of the match. And this duel ended with a draw, as both stroke eight times each. Best Halmstad scorer was Magnus Persson by six goals.

Right after the 21:18 Hamburg decided the match by a series of 6:1 to 27:19 – and from that moment on Halmstad lacked the powers and the confidence to stand their opponent. One and  half minute before the end of the match, Blazenko Lackovic, who had returned after an injury, scored the 39:29 – the one and only double figured result in the match, which had been one-sided in the final 20 minutes.

“Halmstad showed a really strong performance before the break, especially thanks to their counter-attacks. It is always a great pleasure to face Scandinavian teams, as their players are highly skilled and trained,” HSV coach Martin Schwalb praised the opponent – and added: “I think it was an attractive match for the spectators, as both teams played in full speed. In the end our experience was the key to this well-deserved victory.”

His Swedish counterpart Ulf Sivertsson mentioned that: "It was anything but an easy task against one of the best teams in the world. In the second half the number of top alternatives from the HSV bench was the clear difference between both teams. But we are proud on how we played and return home heads held high.”