Clinical Sporting overcome Besiktas as Medvedi claim their first win

With 33 goals scored, Sporting just had too much for Besiktas to cope with. The Portuguese side are now top of the table, level with Presov, who lost their first match of the Champions League season in a thrilling contest with Chekhovskie Medvedi. Sporting face Presov next weekend in Slovakia.

• This is the third time in this season’s Champions League that Sporting have scored more than 30 goals
• Best scorer for the visitors was Valentin Ghionea with seven, while Nemanja Pribak netted six times for Besiktas
• Sporting led all the way through the game, counting up to eight goals advantage before finishing with six
• Medvedi claimed their first points in the competition
• In contrast, Presov dropped points for the first time

GROUP C: Besiktas Mogaz (TUR) vs Sporting CP (POR) 27:33 (15:18)

With both teams level on four points going into the Group C encounter, the match was expected to be a close one.

But the visitors made the better start, displaying impressive offensive efficiency. After 15 minutes Sporting had already scored 10 with Besiktas struggling to keep up the pace, trailing by three (10-7). 

Despite a spirited Besiktas come back shortly afterwards, the visitors pushed the pedal again and scored four in a row with Edmilson Araujo showing his clinical side. With his men down by four (15-11), Mevlut Arin was forced to take a time-out. That didn’t change the course of the game much, as the visitors were still ahead by three at the break (18-15).

The half-time break didn't help the locals who were having trouble defensively. Just 15 minutes after coming back to the court, they were losing by eight, with little possibility of coming back. 

Edmilson Araujo and Valentin Ghionea were getting through quite easily, with the Romanian left-hander finishing the game with seven goals. In the end, despite Nemanja Pribak having a great second half, scoring five in the last thirty minutes of the game, Besiktas had to concede defeat, 27-33.

Sporting have now six points in Group C while Besiktas are stuck at four after four rounds.

Mufit Ann, the Besiktas Mogaz HT head coach, was disappointed with his side’s performance.

“Today, we played poor handball both defensively and offensively,” he said. “They made fewer mistakes and passed the ball around quicker than us.”

“We played good defense and took advantage of our fast breaks,” added Hugo Canela, the Sporting Lisbon head coach. “That was the difference between the two teams. In my first Champions League year experience as a coach, we want to go as far as we can.”

Group C: TATRAN Presov (SVK) vs Chekhovskie Medvedi (RUS) 27:28 (13:13)

Presov had been top of Group C prior to the match, while Medvedi had lost all three their previous games. However, the Russian champions managed to upset the home team.

It was a very close battle from the opening minute. Midway through the first half, the teams were level at 5-5, with the impressive Alexander Kotov scoring all five of Medvedi’s goals. Despite not adding anything else to his tally, the 24-year-old right back ended the game as his team’s top scorer alongside Dmitri Santalov.

Presov started to take charge, taking a 11-8 lead. However, Medvedi rallied with five goals without reply to make the score 13-11, before drawing level ahead of the break.

The second half saw the Bears take a slight advantage. By the 44th minute, Chekhov pulled clear at 22-18, but the hosts, inspired by Igor Chupryna’s saves, needed just four minutes to draw level at 22-22.

The game drew to a thrilling conclusion when Victor Furtsev scored for Medvedi half a minute from time with the score tied at 27-27, giving his team a vital two points. 

Vladimír Maximov, coach of Chechovski Medvedi, said his team’s victory was down to “luck”.

“We had four goals advantage during the game, but we lost it, because we have many young players and they believed that the game is over. Today we were luckier than Slavko Golužas’ (Tatran head coach) team.“

Goluža congratulated the away team, adding: “We didn’t play well today. We made too many mistakes to deserve a win in a match like this. We were not aggressive enough in defense and missed clear chances in attack so the win of Medvedi is deserved."