Göppingen to quarter-final, Ystad await Sunday’s results

Frisch Auf Göppingen left no doubt on the court when they clinched their quarter-final berth with a 40:31 away win against OCI-LIONS in the Men’s EHF Cup Group Phase on Saturday.

Ystads IF’s 23:22 win in Spain against Helvetia Anaitasuna secured second place in Group D for the Swedish team, but Ystad will have to wait until Sunday to find out if this is enough to reach the quarter-finals.

GROUP B
OCI-LIONS (NED) vs Frisch Auf Göppingen (GER) 31:40 (15:19)

More than a hundred Göppingen fans, who had taken the trip across the Dutch border, could celebrate as Göppingen clinched their quarter-final berth with a clear win in a very high scoring match.

The LIONS had an impressive start though, and were leading 6:3 and 10:7, before Andreas Berg equalised for Göppingen at 10:10 just over 15 minutes into the match. Less than five minutes later Berg scored his fifth goal to give the visitors their first lead at 13:12.

That advantage was extended to 15:12 and 18:13 before the favourites took a four-goal lead with them into the second half.

After the break, Göppingen never allowed the hosts to get any closer than six goals, leading by 11 at one stage before ultimately winning by nine.

The top scorer of the match came from the losing team, with 12 goals for Joao Ramos, while Berg scored 10 for Göppingen.

The result means that finals organisers HBC Nantes will proceed directly to the finals if they get a result better than a 15-goal defeat away against Team Tvis Holstebro Sunday.

GROUP D
Helvetia Anaitasuna (ESP) vs Ystads IF (SWE) 22:23 (12:8)

Ystad secured second position in the group after a close finish in Spain, but with seven points, the team from southern Sweden have to wait for the matches on Sunday to find out if they make it to the quarter-finals or not.

19-year-old sharp-shooter Lukas Nilsson was absent from Ystads line-up on Saturday, and he was sorely missed in the visitors’ attack from the start.

Ystad had serious scoring problems, and Anaitasuna moved ahead 7:2 and 10:5 before the guests began to experience a little success in attack. This did not last long though, and at the half-time buzzer the home team were four goals up again.

It was a completely different Swedish team who came out of the dressing room for the second half. Ystad scored the first three goals of the period and went on to hold a three-goal lead several times.

Helvetia bounced back to equalise at 21:21, but after a close and dramatic finish with a direct red card for the visitors’ left wing Philip Nilsson, Ystad left the court with both points.