Strong Skjern save their best until last to beat Kadetten

Skjern Handbold did not lead for nearly 40 minutes of their away game against Swiss champions Kadetten Schaffhausen, but they moved up the gears for the remaining time, winning the last 20 minutes by seven goals (14:7) to seal a 30:24 win in the BBC Arena.

Kadetten Schaffhausen (SUI) vs Skjern Handbold (DEN) 24:30 (13:12)

A group of Rhein-Neckar Löwen fans had made the trip across the border from Germany to support their team´s former line player Bjarte Myrhol who is now playing for Skjern and the 33-year-old Norwegian international rewarded them with six goals on six attempts, helping his team to a clear and important win.

Before the game Kadetten’s German coach Markus Baur had said that Skjern were “one of the top favourites in our group, and against such a team, you need a top performance to win,” and his Hungarian centre back Gabor Csaszar had listened in particular.

The playmaker, who had scored 14 goals in Kadetten’s 30:27 home win against Motor Zaporozhye last Thursday, scored 11 times against the Danes in total as during the first 35 minutes, Kadetten were leading by a margin of one to three goals, as their aggressive defence was more successful than Skjern’s more defensive 6-0 formation.

However, Csaszar’s goals were not enough for his team over the full 60 minutes as the visitors managed to hang on, and just over nine minutes into the second half, veteran line player Thomas Klitgaard gave them their first lead the match at 18:17.

When Kasper Søndergaard Sarup made it two goals just under four minutes later (20:18) from a penalty, Skjern never looked back, and as left wing Bjarke Christensen made it 28:24 with less than three minutes left, the match was decided.

"The first half was very difficult. Schaffhausen’s goalkeeper [Nikola] Marinovic did his job very well, but in the end we deserved the victory. We are happy and very proud," said Magnus Dahl, the Norwegian goalkeeper for Skjern, who was named 'Player of the Match'.

His coach, Ole Norgaard, was not pleased with the first 30 minutes but was happy with the win. "We had a lot respect before the match against Schaffhausen," he said. "I wasn't happy with the first half but then we could exert the pressure [in the second half]."