Another easy win for Flensburg

Round 9 of the VELUX EHF Champions League Group Phase started on Wednesday with an expectedly clear home win of SG Flensburg-Handewitt against Naturhouse La Rioja - 37:25. After their seventh victory the German side passed defending champions HSV Hamburg by one point, but their local rivals can reach the top again after their match against Halmstad on Sunday.

La Rioja clearly missed the chance to make a huge step towards the Last 16 and remain equal with Gorenje Velenje on six points, two points below third ranked team of Aalborg. The Spanish side was far below par compared to their last week’s home win against Aalborg.

Group D:

SG Flensburg-Handewitt vs. Naturhouse La Rioja (ESP) 37:25 (19:11)

As all three left backs – Lars Kaufmann, Olafur Gustafsson and Drasko Nenadic – are injured, coach Ljubomir Vranjes wore the jersey with number 40 and waited for his call by assistant coach Maik Machulla, who was in charge on the bench. But Vranjes did not need to enter the court, as his experience was not needed in a fully one-sided match.

Machulla  and Vranjes gave – like in the equally one-sided match against Halmstadt (33:25) on Sunday – playing time to their young guns. Though La Rioja had travelled to Flensburg two days prior to the match and had three training sessions in the Flens-Arena, the Spanish team failed to live up to their expectation.

First goal for Karlsson, 1000th for Svan

Already at the score 1:5 La Rioja took their first time-out, but nothing changed as Flensburg easily forged ahead to 7:1 and 10:4. Even defence specialist Tobias Karlsson managed to strike, scoring his first goal in this Champions League season for the 15:6 eight minutes before the break.

Later, when the match was virtually decided, remarkable moment was the 1000^th goal of Lasse Svan Hansen in the Flensburg jersey.

At 16:6 the score was double-figured for the first time. And even as Flensburg decelerated in the first minutes after the break and visitors intermediately reduced for 16:23, the victory was never endangered.

Flensburg even gave goalkeeper Mattias Andersson 56 minutes of rest on the bench, before he entered the court for one penalty shot before sitting down again. But his substitute Sören Rasmussen was a tower of power, whose last action was the save of the third penalty throw at the final whistle.

Best scorers were the young Swedes Jim Gottfridsson (7) and Hampus Wanne (6/both Flensburg) and Josep Masachs with four goals for La Rioja.