La Rioja make important steps towards progression

La Rioja comfortably beat Vojvodina by nine goals to jump to the top ahead of Meshkov Brest and Porto as their stunning form guides them towards the knock out stages of the VELUX EHF Champions League.

Meshkov Brest bounce back after two defeats giving Porto no chance.

GROUP C


HC Meshkov Brest (BLR) vs Futebol Clube do Porto (POR) 34:27 (17:12)

Meshkov Brest ended a series of defeats and added some all-important points to their tally (eight points).

This convincing seven-goal win puts Brest well and truly back on track.

It was a completely different game to last week’s game in Portugal.

Meshkov were effective in attack and their 77% shot-efficiency rate helped them secure a convincing five-goal lead at half-time.  

There was never doubt about today’s winner as Meshkov Brest took the lead through Nikola Manojlovic and remained on top until the end.

The Belarusian side missed their two goalkeepers Ivan Pesic and Dmitry Patotski; however, Vitali Charapenka proved his quality right throughout the match with several fantastic saves from close range.

Charapenka looked confident from the off giving the defence of Bebeshko’s men some much needed security.  

Ricardo Costa was forced to take time out after nine minutes as Simon Razgor made it 6:1 for the home side.

The Dragon’s poor shooting from back court was capitalised on by fantastic efforts from Brest at the other end, who gave Quintana no chance between the posts.

When Jordan Pitre made it 7:9, it looked as Porto were back in the game.  

However, the Dragons were simply not consistent enough to stay in touching distance.

In the 11th minute Hugo Santos was taken off the court with a back injury after scoring a counter attack, yet things looked even worse in 25th minute as another winger, Jordan Pitre was sent off.

It took ten minutes for Portuguese star Gilberto Duarte to hit the target, as their top scorer struggled just like his whole team.

In second half Ricardo Costa tried to change the line-up, but the damage was already done.

Some players from the bench were given a chance, like Michal Kasal from Czech Republic and they fought bravely right until the end to keep the score line respectable.

Naturhouse La Rioja (ESP) vs Vojvodina (SRB) 31:22 (15:9)

La Rioja made an important step towards qualifying for the knockout stages of VELUX EHF Champions League by beating Vojvodina in Logrono.

They now move to the top of the table with ten points, ahead of Porto and Meshkov Brest.

The Spanish side is on the right track to match last year’s success of making to the top sixteen clubs in Europe.

This was their fifth consecutive win in VELUX EHF Champions League.

La Rioja looked stiff at the beginning of the match and Vojvodina took the lead through Milos Orbovic, but Cristian Malmagro started his goal-scoring engines to level the score and then later to give Spanish side the lead.

Once again the Spanish Right back proved key together with the speedy Alvarez Rodriguez on the right wing - with both topping their team’s score sheets.

Serbian Orbovic opened the score in both halves, yet even his five goals were not enough to keep Vojvodina in touching distance.

Richard Kappelin found his form once again to deny Vojvodina from scoring for eight minutes in the first half as La Rioja scored seven in a row.

La Rioja were leading by six goals at half-time, one more than last week in Novi Sad.

There was little resistance from the Serbian side in the second half, who looked clueless a number of times.

In the final minutes of the game, Kappelin’s replacement Aguinagalde stopped several shots allowing La Rioja to enjoy the fiesta together with the fans.

With few mistakes throughout the game, the Spanish outfit were the superior team and they sent a warning message to all their opponents.

Vojvodina were far from their best tonight, but you hope that this will make them stronger for future matches.

Cristian Malmagro managed to strengthen his position amongst the top 10 scorers in the competition with eight goals.