Last year’s runners-up heading for semi-finals

ABC/UMinho, who reached the final of the Men’s Challenge Cup last season, took a major step towards the semi-finals of this season’s edition of the tournament this weekend.

In the first leg of their quarter-final tie against Wacker Thun, which had been moved a week forward, the Portuguese side won 30:23 at home against their Swiss adversaries.

Despite a temperature of 19 degrees outside the arena, 1,100 spectators were in the Pavilhao Flavio Sa Leite in Braga to support their team who were leading 15:11 at half-time.

In the second half, the home team even lead by nine goals at 22:13, and although Thun managed to reduce the gap to four goals at 24:20 with 10 minutes left, ABC were still able to book a seven-goal win.

With 10 goals, right back Pedro Spinola played an important part in the clear home win.

Centre back Roman Caspar lead the way for Wacker Thun with seven goals.

The two teams meet again in Switzerland Saturday, while this weekend also sees the first leg matches of the other three quarter-final ties.