“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” goes the saying, and that’s obviously one Flensburg-Handewitt lives by. Previous successes in the Champions League for the German side had been powered by impressive performances from Goeran Johannessen. Today was no different, as the Norwegian centre-back impressively scored five goals before the break, helping his team take a brief two-goal advantage by the 9th minute (3:5).
Szeged then took a time-out and settled back into the game. Against his former team, right-winger Bogdan Radivojevic was on fire, outscoring Johannessen by one to keep the locals in game. After turning the game around and leading by two goals, Szeged were forced to get back to the dressing room level with their opponents (12:12).
Both teams remained neck and neck throughout the entire second half, neither of the two teams having anything greater than a two goal advantage.
Both Radivojevic and Johannessen remained flamboyant, while their teams were trading goals and saves. Roland Mikler was elemental in helping Szeged staying in the game, stopping two fast-breaks in the last ten minutes while Flensburg had the chance to break away on the scoreboard.
On the other side, Simon Jeppson made an excellent impression, scoring four in the second half while some of his teammates seemed to struggle physically. The tall Swedish backcourt had the opportunity to offer Flensburg the win on a direct free-throw at the last second, but didn’t manage to, meaning both teams ended this thriller with one point.
Both coaches had a lot to say after the game. Coach Machulla seemed positive after the match stating they felt good coming out of the match with a point "The feelings is very well, because we got one point. We had a very good job the whole game. It wasn’t an easy match for us, because we had a bad match in Hannover on Thursday and our mentality wasn’t so good."
Juan Carlos Pastor was not quite as positive, stating it was a difficult match that took Szeged a while to settle into "It was a very difficult today. We had to take some time integrating our defense to their attacks. The key in the first half was when we attacked for a 3 goals lead and missing the balls and Flensburg came back tot he draw. In the second half we made a same mistakes."
The same sentiment was shared through the players with Marius Steinhauser feeling good about the result saying "For us it is a very good to win one point in Szeged’s fantastic athmosphere."