No surprises in Brest semi-finals

At the Qualification Tournament 1 of the VELUX EHF Champions League in Brest, the champions of Slovakia and Belarus lived up to their expectations in the semi-final as they made their way to the final game for the spot in the Group A of the Group Phase.

Slovakia's Tatran Presov managed to beat RK Vojvodina from Serbia 25:21, while the Belarusian champion HC Meshkov Brest defeated Targos Bevo HC from the Netherlands 36:23. On Sunday, the two winners will fight for the only place in the group phase, while Vojvodina and Targos Bevo are going to face each other in the third place match.

Qualification tournament 1, semi-finals:

Tatran Presov (SVK) vs. RK Vojvodina (SRB) 25:21 (15:10)

For the Slovak champions, the match was not easy at all. During the first 10 minutes, Tatran only managed to score one goal. The attacking line did not perform well, and when the score was 1:4 the head coach Peter David decided to take a time-out.

It certainly helped. The Slovaks started to capitalise on their chances and in the 18th minute, they took the lead for the first time — 7:6. After that, Tatran did not lag behind their opponents any more. Their driving force was the left back Oliver Rabek who scored seven goals.

However, Vojvodina players should be given a credit as they fought hard in the second half. Their best scorer was the 32-year-old left back Uroz Elezovic who made five goals. However, in the crucial moments he hit the woodwork twice from the penalty throw (post and crossbar).

HC Meshkov Brest (BLR) vs. Targos Bevo HC (NED) 36:23 (18:8)

The host team from Brest won much easier than Tatran. The Belarusians took initiative from the first minute and easily scored from various positions.

"We expected more from the Dutch team. We thought that they could play better. And we demonstrated some good handball and showed that we are ready for the Champions League," said the Brest playmaker David Spiler who contributed to the victory with his four goals.

However, at the beginning of the second half Belarusian team seemed to relax, which allowed the young Dutch side to come back from 8:18 to 16:21. The Brest coach changed a lot of players in order to save their energy for the decisive match and as many as 12 players of the host team made it to the scoring list.

Best result was shown by the two newcomers, the Austrian right back Janko Bozovic and the Slovenian left wing Simon Razgor, each of them scoring six goals. At the Dutch side, the top scorer was the centre back Dario Polman who scored seven time.

Now Brest players are looking forward to the game with Tatran. "Tomorrow there will be a totally different game. The Slovaks have a very good team, but we are also stronger than last season. Any other result than our victory will be disappointing for us," said David Spiler.