The expectations were clearly set before the match, as the top team faced the side bottom of the table - and in the end, Wisla Plock easily justified the role of favourites at Presov. The 29:15 at Slovakia was Plock’s seventh win in eight matches, while it was Presov’s seventh defeat in a row. Today’s result ended all mathematical chances of TATRAN reaching the Last 16, remaining on two points. For the second time - after the 20:34 at Toulouse in November - Presov’s lost by a 14-goal margin this season. 

GROUP A

TATRAN Presov (SVK) vs. Orlen Wisla Plock (POL) 15:29 (8:13) 

• Presov were never ahead for the whole 60 minutes, and the 3:3 was the only level score, before Plock started their engines 
• it was mainly Wisla’s defence and strong goalkeeper Adam Morawski which stood in TATRAN’s way, on the other hand, Plock managed to score many easy goals 
• later, a 5:0 run from 15:10 to 20:10 - the first double-figured advantage -decided the one-sided encounter in the middle of the second half
• top scorers were Pavel Caballero Hernandez (Presov), Krzystof Komarzwewski and Dmitry Zhitnikov (both Plock), all on five goals 
• next week, both sides face off again in Poland, before Wisla will have their “final” for the top position at Füchse Berlin, the two currently equal on 14 points 

Presov cannot stop the negative series 

It is their 25^th international season in various EHF club competitions, but there is not much to celebrate for TATRAN Presov. Like in the previous season, the Slovak champions have missed the knock-out stage of the European League. But in 2020/21, they had three group phase victories to their name. Currently, they have only one. Their last top-level season was 2018/19 in the C/D groups of the EHF Champions League, when Presov just failed to qualify for the play-offs, falling one point short after seven victories in ten matches. Being the top side in their domestic league, TATRAN will have another chance to improve in the next season.