09.10.2007, 08:31
Historical win for Viborg

Saturday was a historical day for Viborg HK. The Danes won their first CL match ever after defeating the Ukrainian ZTR Zaporoshye 29-23.

Historical win for Viborg

The 890 spectators in Viborg’s Stadionhal witnessed that Viborg had practically no problems with the 3-2-1 defence of Zaporoshye. The Ukrainians had considerably more trouble with Viborg’s 6-0 defence. After Zaporozhye were leading 5-3 early in the match, the home team soon took the initiative and the lead. Viborg had their largest lead in the first half at 14-9 and the half time result was 16-12

Widening gap

In the second half, Viborg continued to dominate and with an improving Swedish keeper, Thomas Forsberg – 21 saves in the game –, the hosts continued to increase their lead. With six minutes left Viborg were already leading by nine goals, 29-23. Towards the end, though, Zaporozhye managed to close the gap to six goals at the final score was 29-23.

“Viborg too fast”

“We had big problems with Viborg’s fast attacking play and with their counter attacks and fast breaks. Their goalkeeper was also very strong,” Zaporozhye´s coach, Yacheslav Dudschenko, said after the match.

“I think we did very well against an opponent we did not know a lot about in advance. I was impressed how we got things under control so soon. The only thing I’m a little sorry about is that we did not win with more goals at the end. That may be a problem in the race with Zaporozhye for the third place in the group to reach the Cup Winners’ Cup,” Viborg’s coach Søren Hildebrand told Eurohandball.com after the win. 

TEXT: Peter Bruun