Bjerringbro stay on top; first win for Metalurg

Bjerringbro-Silkeborg continued playing on a high level following the international break and, thanks to a comfortable and convincing win over Besiktas on Sunday afternoon, stayed on top of VELUX EHF Champions League Group C. The Scandinavian side now count 10 points in their tally and sit two points clear of Sporting CP and TATRAN Presov.

In the second Group C match on Sunday, HC Metalurg recorded their first win of the campaign after hard fought 60 minutes against Chekhovskie Medvedi.

• Bjerringbro-Silkeborg record their fourth consecutive win in the competition
• Besiktas endure their first away defeat out of three played in this season’s group phase
• Metalurg take their first victory of the group phase, against Chekhovskie

GROUP C
Bjerringbro-Silkeborg (DEN) vs Besiktas Mogaz (TUR) 34:27 (16:12)

The Group C leaders were in control of the match right from the start. Similar to the encounter in Turkey, when the Danish side were ahead by 10 goals until half time, coach Peter Bredsdorff-Larsen’s men were clearly the better side. The hosts were far more efficient in attack, with left back Nikolaj Markussen the most dangerous in front of Besiktas’ goal in the first half.

There was a significant difference in the goalkeeping. Whilst Kasper Larsen recorded a 37 per cent save efficiency in the first half, the Besiktas goalkeepers reached only 11 per cent. Ramazan Döne showed his individual qualities, but even his eight goals were not enough for Besiktas.

The top scorer of the Champions League, Johan Hassen scored six goals and took his tally to 43, with a fantastic average of more than seven per match.

The match tempo did not reach enormous heights and Besiktas failed to really test Bjerringbro-Silkeborg over their two matches. Coach Mufit Arin’s team committed too many technical faults, conceded easy goals from the back court and could not match their opponents in aggressiveness in defensive situations.

“We knew it would be more difficult today than in Istanbul – also because of the injured player and the suspension of Ramazan Döne – so we knew it would be a different team today and a much tougher game,” said BSV coach Bredsdorff-Larsen. “We had to play our best, and after the first half we were comfortable and played a good game. We are very happy about the victory and look forward to the next match.”

Besiktas are now winless in their last three games and will travel to Presov next week. On the other hand, Bjerringbro-Silkeborg are in a good position to make the play-offs. They pay a visit to Chekhovskie Medvedi next weekend.

HC Metalurg (MKD) vs Chekhovskie Medvedi (RUS) 25:24 (16:10)

It took six games for coach Danilo Brestovac’s team to taste victory in the VELUX EHF Champions League 2018/19 – finally, the Macedonian side left the court with some points on Sunday evening.

"I’m very happy about our first win in the Champions league. Our bigger roster helped us in the rotation of the team. We need to analyse our game in the second half, because we didn’t have solutions for the 5-1 defence of Chekhovskie," said Brestovac after the match. "In the first half we played some good handball and we had a lot of help from our goalkeeper."

Chekhovskie Mevedi were on a high note after winning their last two matches, but on Sunday they lost their game in the first half, scoring only two goals after Dmitriy Kornev levelled at 8:8 in the 14th minute.

Metalurg played effectively through the wings, with Ante Tokic and Dimitar Dimitrioski on fire, scoring nine goals altogether. Martin Serafimov added four goals from the back court, as did Slovenian left back Aleksander Spende.

Metalurg suffered a setback in the second half as they failed to maintain the level of their play, both in attack and defence, but with the help of Martin Tomovski’s penalty saves, the home side held on.

Though the ‘Bears’ found some consistency in the second 30 minutes, the gap from the first half was too big. Artem Grushko saved the penalty throw from Serafimov two minutes from time and gave the visitors a realistic chance to equalise, but Alexander Kotov’s effort at the very end was denied.

Metalurg remain bottom of the standings in Group C with two points, while Chekhovskie Medvedi are fourth with four points and still have a theoretical chance of fighting for the play-offs.