Landin saves 20 to push Löwen through gate

Rhein Neckar Löwen follow Veszprem and Hamburg to the Last 16 of the VELUX EHF Champions League. After winning 32:26 at Motor Zaporozhye on Thursday the German side cannot miss the knock-out stage, having eleven points on their account after seven rounds.

After their second home defeat at Charkov, Motor remain on seven points and on the third position of this group. Zaporozhye, Celje and Zagreb will probably battle out the two remaining spots in Group A, while the fate of the last team St. Petersburg seems to be all but sealed.

Group A:
Motor Zaporozhye (UKR) vs. Rhein Neckar Löwen (GER) 26:32 (10:15)

At Ukraine Löwen took revenge for the 31:31 draw on home court in their opener and still can hope to catch up with the group leaders of Veszprem.

From the first minute on, Löwen played very focused and concentrated – fully aware of the strength of the Ukrainians and eager to win their last international match in 2013.

With 20 saves in the match and 51 % efficiency in the first half the goalkeeper Niklas Landin was the key for the stable defence, while Motor could not get through like they did in the final stages of the first round. Being dominant, Löwen extended the gap to five goals at the break – mainly because of their needle-pin counter-attacks.

The host surrendered after the break and were close to a disaster, when Uwe Gensheimer scored for the first double digits lead at 28:18 nine minutes before the end. Then the German side decelerated and allowed Motor to reduce the gap.

Motor's Vladislav Ostroushko  was the top scorer of the match as he scored eight times, while Uwe Gensheimer netted in seven goals for visitors.

Löwen's coach Gudmundur Gudmundsson: “It was a good match for Landin and his 20 saves are really a high level. Our defence was working well too. Also I am satisfied with our attack as we succeeded both against 5-1 and 6-0 defence of Motor.

Löwen's right back Alexander Petersson: “Motor were better than one year ago when we played in the EHF cup, but we fulfilled all coach's instructions and got two points. It was a tough trip in Ukraine and now we are waiting for Bundesliga match on Sunday.”

Motor's coach Sergey Bebeshko: “Our level was lower than the one of our opponent. And when one of the best goalkeepers of the world is working so well, it is even more difficult. In our first match in Germany we scored from 60% of our attempts, but today our attack was too poor. But I am satisfied because we fought until the end.”

Motor's line player Aliaksandr Tsitou: “I agree with our coach that goalkeeper Landin was the best player of the match. Rhein Neckar did not surprise us, we expected exactly the same level. I don't know why, but we played very badly at home. We are too scaried to make mistakes at home court.”