Elverum Handball showed a clear sign of life in their rescheduled match against HC Meshkov Brest on Thursday night, ending their longest run of EHF Champions League defeats with an impressive performance in a tight match.

Elverum – now on four points – passed defending champions Vardar, while Brest remain in third place. 

GROUP A

Elverum Handball (NOR) vs HC Meshkov Brest (BLR) 33:31 (16:17)

• Elverum ended their longest losing run in the EHF Champions League of six games
• Meshkov Brest were the stronger side during most of the first half and led 14:11 in minute 25, mainly thanks to their powerful Bosnian line player Vladimir Vranjes
• the trio of Andrei Yurinok, Marko Panic (six goals) and Vladimir Vranjes (seven) scored 20 of Brest’s 31 goals.
• nine different Elverum players were on the scorers' list, topped by Alexander Blonz, Luc Abalo and Dominik Mathe (five goals each)
• crucially, Luc Abalo and Alexander Blonz scored the last two goals for the victors

Alexander Blonz – Elverum’s diamond

At the age of 20, Alexander Blonz already has a silver medal from the 2019 IHF Men's World Championship and a bronze medal from the EHF EURO 2020.

In his second season for Elverum, the Norwegian left wing is making huge strides forward, and he now has 29 goals in the EHF Champions League, including the five scored against Meshkov Brest on Thursday evening.

Blonz is already in the focus of many top clubs all over Europe – and is already a perfect counterpart of experienced French right wing Luc Abalo.