 Flensburg too much for to handle for León
Flensburg coach Ljubomir Vranjes and Ademar León’s Manolo Cadenas continued their rivalry on Wednesday as their team’s met for the second time in this season’s VELUX EHF Champions League in a crucial match for both teams.
The history between the coaches stretches back to 1999 when Vranjes played for Spanish club BM Granollers between 1999 and 2001, while Manolo Cadenas coached Ademar León to the Spanish championship in 2001 in his first spell at the club.
Flensburg were too strong for León and never let their 14:10 half-time lead slip, extending it to a 27:22 final score. After the game, both coaches were very complimentary of each other.
"In studying his tactics, I learned a lot from Manolo," said Ljubomir Vranjes.
"It's fun to compete with Flensburg. They have already played some incredible games and if the team continue to produce these performances, they will certainly be in Cologne," replied Manolo Cadenas.
SG Flensburg-Handewitt have temporarily grabbed first place in fiercely contested Group A.
However, SG may drop as low as third place at the end of the Group Phase, depending on the result of the final game at Chekhovski Medvedi, on Thursday 21 February, and on the results of HSV Hamburg.
Ljubomir Vranjes was not looking that far ahead; enjoying the victory instead.
 "I am tremendously proud of this team.
"We have managed the tough time with four games in nine days with four wins. The players have woken up with pain in the morning and have continued to work," said the coach.
Flensburg had to play without two key players on the court, with Michael Knudsen out because of a knee injury and Anders Eggert stuck at home with a fever.
León had their own important absentee in world champion Carlos Ruesga, who was missing because of an elbow injury he suffered on Sunday against Montpellier.
"We didn´t want to take any risk (with Ruesga), because some difficult games lie ahead," said Cadenas.
Despite this loss, their sixth in nine games, the Last 16 remains a realistic goal for León.
If the Spanish club wins on the final day against RK Partizan and Montpellier fail to gain more than two points from the last two games, fourth place and a spot in the next phase is theirs.
TEXT: Jan Kirschner / cor
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