First home win for the Oilers

After the opening draw against MVM Veszprem and the defeats against THW Kiel and SG Flensburg-Handewitt, Orlen Wisla Plock made their fans happy.

Though Besiktas Jimnastik Kulubu showed strong resistance mainly in the first half on Saturday, the individual class and the improved defence of the Polish runners-up were the key for their first home win of this VELUX EHF Champions League season, which had not been endangered after the break.

Thanks to those two points, Plock consolidated the sixth position in Group A, extending the gap to Istanbul and (currently) Celje to three points.

Group A:

Orlen Wisla Plock (POL) vs. Besiktas Jimnastik Kulubu (TUR) 32:26 (15:12)

In the first 20 minutes, Besiktas continued on the way, they had impressed and beaten Zagreb two weeks ago in Round 6. Plock had problems stopping 'the usual Istanbul suspects' Ramazan Döne, Darko Djukic and Nemanja Pribak.

On the other hand, their efficiency in attack was far below par. Coach Manuel Cadenas had seen enough after only twelve minutes when Besiktas were ahead by 7:5.

For another ten minutes, nothing changed, despite the great and vociferous support from the 'Oilers’' fans. Plock then found their usual rhythm in attack, strengthened their defence and goalkeeping so the 11:10 in minute 24 was the last advance of Besiktas for the rest of the match.

Scoring a 5:1 series until the break including three strikes of Matevs Piechowski, the hosts paved the way for a three goal half-time advance, which did not reflect the rundown of the match.

Unlucky for Istanbul, Piechowski’s last strike was with the final buzzer and during a two-man advantage of the Turkish champions, who seemed to have their heads in the dressing room already.

Plock took the psychological advance of this goal for the second half, easily extending the gap to 20:15 after only six minutes, mainly thanks to counter attacks after turnovers, while Istanbul in this period obviously lacked the ideas and means in attack.

Despite knowing that they were defeated, Besiktas again did not give up their fighting spirit. They already had shown at Veszprem and Flensburg (both 25:33) and kept the deficit lower than six goals all the time until minute 55. Finally when Besiktas surrendered, Plock managed to earn a clear and well-deserved result.

Besiktas coach Mufit Arin spoke after the game. "After 25 minutes I was very satisfied with the result and our performance as well. Then we started getting tired and we were too much in a hurry to shoot when we had two more players on the field. After the break we missed many clear situations, Wisla made some counter attacks and got 5 goals led. They deserved for this victory."

While nearly all Plock players were present in the scorer list with Zhitnikov, Racotea and Piechowski on top by five each, the trio Djukic (9), Döne and Pribak (each 5) scored 19 of 26 goals for the away team.