Sävehof win top-of-the-group clash against Sporting

Thursday’s match was a battle between two teams that had already taken maximum points; Sävehof and Sporting CP. The Swedish side proved to be very solid at home, as its defence and goalkeepers helped them take the lead in the first half.

They retained their advantage in the second half, and were strong enough to collect their third win in as many games. Sporting suffered their first loss of the season in the Champions League tonight.

• Goalkeeper Agust Eli Björgvinsson was pivotal in Sävehof’s win, with 14 saves
• Top scorer of the game was Jonathan Edvarsson with six, while Sporting’s Edmiloson Araujo and Frankis Carol Marzo both scored four
• Sävehof are now in the lead of Group C with six points, two more than Sporting CP

GROUP C

IK Sävehof (SWE) vs Sporting CP (POR) 29:24 (13:10)

The start of the game went in favour of the hosts ; even though Frankis Carlos Marzo scored twice for Sporting in the first five minutes, the Portuguese side lost too many balls. The hosts made the most of these errors, playing clinically in attack. When Sebastian Kalrsson scored his second goal, Sävehof were already up by three (5:2).

The Swedish defence was key throughout the first half, as it was strong enough to prevent Sporting from scoring more than ten, and when it was defeated, goalkeeper Agust Eli Björgvinsson made a couple of saves to help his team increase its advantage.

At half-time, despite a last second goal by Ivan Nincevic, Sävehof were still up by three (13:10).

Sporting came back on court with different intentions in the second half. Playing much faster, the Portuguese side was helped by Luis Frade and Edmilson Araujo to come back to within one.

But that is as close as they were going to get, Björgvinsson started making saves again and, immediately, the Swedish side cruised away again on the scoreboard. Thanks to a 5:1 run, Sävehof took a five-goal advantage which they were able to retain it until the final whistle, despite Sporting taking a timeout to try and turn things around.

IK Sävehof coach Kristian Berndtsson spoke of the defence after the victory, ”Our performance today was extremely good. We played as we wanted in defence and I also think that we made sure that they didn’t make their offensive plays work as intended. Our defence was extremely good today”.

The Partille-based side's Stefan Sunajko scored four goals but was more focussed on the team display, “Most important is that we got the win and that we once again showed that we have a team character. It’s very difficult to play good for the entire sixty minutes, but we more or less succeeded with that today. I want to speak more of the team’s performance than of mine. We showed team character but in terms of individual players, also Emil Berlin performed great again and showed that he’s ready for this. As a team we showed discipline and without our team chemistry, this would not have been possible”.