Kristianstad advance into fourth place with first away win

In a match without significance in terms of reaching the elimination matches, IFK Kristianstad advanced into fourth position after securing their first away win in the Champions League this season.

As Kristianstad will have no more away games this campaign, their 29:26 win in Switzerland also be their only away victory.

• Kristianstad advanced from sixth into fourth position, now with seven points, while Schaffhausen are fifth with six points

• Kristianstad changed the game in their favour when going from 18:20 to 22:20 at the middle of the second half

• Icelandic left back Olafur Gudmundsson scored eight goals for Kristianstad, while four players scored four each for Schaffhausen.

GROUP D

Kadetten Schaffhausen (SUI) vs IFK Kristianstad (SWE) 26:29 (15:15)

Despite having no chance to proceed to the knockout stages of the VELUX EHF Champions League, neither team had any problems motivating themselves. In fact, they gave each other and the crowd in the BBC Arena a quite entertaining as well as equal match.

At the beginning, Schaffhausen had the initiative and several three-goal leads, but Kristianstad caught up at 11:11 and took the lead at 13:12, as their 5-1 defence began to bother Kadetten´s attack. By way of 15:15 at halftime, the game continued to be equal way into the second half.

As IFK changed a 20:18 deficit into a 22:20 lead around the middle of the second half, however, it was the start to the visitors having the upper hand for the rest of the match, and as they got four goals up with only a few minutes left, the victory was theirs.

Kristianstad coach Ljubomir Vranjes reflected on his teams campaign as well as today's victory by saying: "We are satisfied. Overall, the guys played a good game. It's nice from the experts that they said before the campaign, that we could reach the 1st or 2nd place."

Kadetten coach Petr Hrachovec said: "It was a very balanced game today. Sadly for us we didn't succed in the decisive moments."