Bidasoa Irun played their first competitive match in 17 days due to some players quarantining - and you could see on Tuesday night that the runners-up of the Spanish league were not in top form for almost 50 minutes. But the hosts showed incredible morale and fighting spirit after being down by 23:28 in minute 53.   

Within six minutes and thanks to a 5:0 run, they levelled the result and even had the chance to win, but failed with their final shot. In the last second, Polish wing Michal Daszek secured a lucky win for Plock - their fourth victory in five matches. Wisla’s second key to success was again new Russian arrival Sergei Mark Kosorotov. Next week, both sides clash again for the reverse figure. 

GROUP A 

Bidasoa Irun (ESP) vs. Orlen Wisla Plock (POL) 28:29 (11:16) 

• thanks to this win, Plock are only two points below unbeaten leaders Füchse Berlin - and both still have a postponed match to play. Irun remain on two points after four matches, equal with Pfadi Winterthur and TATRAN Presov. 
• after 5:5, Plock were constantly ahead until 28:28, six goals was the biggest lead in the first half. 
• again Sergei Mark Kosorotov was Wisla’s strongest asset in attack, as the Russian back court ace scored six of his nine goals in the first half. 
• after the break, Plock easily kept the distance and even extended the gap to seven goals several times and seemed to be on the way to victory at 28:23 in minute 53. 
• Irun never gave up, scored goal after goal and equalised 90 seconds before the end. But then, they missed their last shot eleven seconds before the end. 
• after a time-out from their Spanish coach Javier Sabate, Plock found the gap in Iruns’s defence, and Daszek scored with the final buzzer.

Irun with two more matches before Christmas 

After several COVID-19 cases in the Irun squad, the matches at Plock and Winterthur are now scheduled for next week - the last matches of this group before the EHF EURO break. Bidasoa will have a little European journey, as they play in Switzerland on Tuesday (14 December) and in Poland on Thursday (16 December). Then only one postponed match of this group needs to be re-scheduled: Pfadi’s home match against leaders Füchse Berlin, which was supposed to be played today and needed to be postponed due to COVID-19 cases in the Berlin team.