Palicka saved Kiel’s narrow win in Brest

Last years finalist THW Kiel struggled for most of their match away at Meshkov Brest in the VELUX EHF Champions League Round 3 and needed the heroics of Marko Vujin and a last second save from Andreas Palicka to seal their second win in Group A.

GROUP A
HC Meshkov Brest (BLR) vs THW Kiel (GER) 24:25 (11:11)

THW Kiel did not start the season in such great shape, after their shock defeat in Zagreb in the first round the last year’s finalist was made to fight hard for their first win against La Rioja. Kiel travelled to Brest, where the home side managed to beat Metalurg in the previous round, without injured Filip Jicha.

As expected it was a tight game but the Belarusian champion took the initiative and made use of the poor shooting form of the visitors. Marko Vujin was Kiel’s top scorer with eight goals to his name but to reach that tally the Serbian right back needed quite a few shots and neither Dominik Klein, nor Joan Canellas was particularly accurate.

Brest playing without the suspended line player Rastko Stojkovic had an excellent game and kept the favourites at bay but as the match progressed the home side started to get more exhausted and the German team slowly took control of the game. Still, Kiel needed a huge save from Andreas Palicka in the dying seconds of the game to seal the victory for his team.

Kiel struggled for their second win of the season, however, the Belarus have nothing to be ashamed of afteir their narrow loss as they came agonisingly close to beat THW.