19.04.2007, 09:16
Another Miracle in Austria?

Lada are leading by six before the return game in Südstadt, but Gunnar Prokop still believes in the final.

Another Miracle in Austria?

Lada Togliatti has a six-goal advantage for the second leg of their Champions League semi-final against Austrian team Hypo-Noe. The result of the Saturday game was 28-22 in favour of the Russians.

“It’ll be a hard task to beat the Russian team by seven goals. We’ve got to repeat the miracle that we made happen in the quarterfinal against the Danish team Aalborg DH. Lada’s players are very disciplined, and they have a fast-moving attack which makes minimal mistakes.” Gunnar Prokop (Hypo’s manager) told eurohandball.com.

“There is still hope, of course. If we produce such an enthusiastic performance as in the second leg of the quarterfinal then we can succeed. In Togliatti, Hypo had 70 attacks, but only scored 22 times. Despite our weak performance, we were just two goals (22-24) behind shortly before the end of the game. Our players made the huge mistake. They wanted to turn the game around and win. We could have lost by just 2-3 goals, which would have been a good final result for us, but we conceded four goals in a row and lost by six.” – Prokop continued.

For the return match in Austria, players of both teams are reported to be fit. The game takes place in the BSFZ Südstadt on Friday, the 20th April at 19.05 (CET) Referees will be Kenneth Abrahamsen and Arne Kristiansen from Norway.

TEXT: Márk Hegedüs, Time Out Magazin (www.timeoutmag.com)