First win for Chambéry, Szeged stay on top

Both Saturday matches in the Men´s EHF Cup were played in Slovakia, where both home teams ended up empty handed.

In Group C Pick Szeged held on to their status with maximum points, as they took their third narrow win in succession; this time 31:29 away against TATRAN Presov.

In Group D Chambéry Savoie Handball can go on dreaming of the quarter-final, after the French team got their first win in the group phase, 29:24 against HC Sporta Hlohovec who are left without any points in the group
 
Group C
TATRAN Presov (SVK) vs Pick Szeged (HUN) 29:31 (14:18)

Pick Szeged are still on top of Group C with maximum points after their third relatively win in a row.

However, the current number one in the Hungarian league had to fight for the win at the end after having lost a clear lead along the way.

Throughout the first half, Szeged did not seem to be going to get a lot of trouble getting the two points with them back to Hungary.

The visitors had a clear lead for most of the first 30 minutes, being five goals up when their lead was at the highest, and being four goals up at half-time, Pick still did not look like a team who would get in trouble.

In the second half, however, the home team managed to catch up and equalise at 22:22, before Szeged managed to take another four goal lead and make things clear in the last minutes.

Pick Szeged are leading the group with six points after three games, regardless of the Sunday match between IFK Kristianstad and HBC Nantes.

Presov are still on two points, but may still hope for the quarter-final.

Group D
HC Sporta Hlohovec (SVK) vs Chambéry Savoie Handball (FRA) 24:29 (12:13)

When you play a handball match with an attacking efficiency of only 28%, you can hardly expect to win.

Sporta Hlohovec had to realise this fact as they lost by five goals at home to Chambéry Savoie Handball.

Despite their low efficiency in the attack, Hlohovec were actually able to follow their visitors for large part of the match. The first half was equal with almost constantly changing leads, and it went on that way for the first part of the second half, until Chambéry, who were still missing injured line player Bertrand Gille, took the upper hand through a five-goal run within four minutes around the middle of the half.

This series of goals changed a 19:17 lead for Hlohovec into a 22:19 lead for Chambéry who did not look back for the rest of the match.

The win brings Chambéry on three points after three matches, and allows the French team to go on hoping for the quarter-finals.

Hlohovec, on the other hand, are almost without any hope to go any further than the group phase, still being on zero points.