After losing their two previous matches, Sporting CP bounced back at home with a comfortable 27:21 victory against TATRAN Presov in their rescheduled round 2 match.

The result means Presov remain bottom of the group B table with five defeats, while Sporting are fourth after their third win of the season.

GROUP B
Sporting CP (POR) vs TATRAN Presov (SVK) 27:21 (13:10)

• although Presov's Oliver Rabek scored the first goal of the game, this was the only time the visitors led the match
• after Jens Schöngarth netted his first goal in the eighth minute to put Sporting 3:2 ahead, the home team never looked back
• Tiago Rocha scored Sporting's first and last goals and added a further six in between, to make him the top scorer of the match
• both goalkeepers were on form, with Sporting's Matevz Skok saving 44 per cent of shots and Presov's Igor Chupryna recording a save efficiency of 37 per cent
• the result means Presov have beaten Sporting only once in five encounters

The Cuban influence

Sporting's Pedro Valdez and Presov's Pavel Caballero both hail from Cuba and both made an impression on the match. Left back Valdez scored seven times from 12 attempts on goal, including five from the nine-metre line, while left wing Caballero netted seven times from nine shots.

However, fellow Cuban Frankis Marzo was missing from Sporting's line-up for this match, after finishing the World Championship in Egypt as top scorer of the tournament with 58 goals for Qatar.