13.02.2014, 10:30
KIF give Kristjansson a winning debut

MATCH REVIEW: Plock dropped their sixth match against KIF in a row despite a late surge. Polish runners-up will miss the top two finish in the group.

KIF give Kristjansson a winning debut

KIF Kolding Kobenhavn remain invincible in matches against Orlen Wisla Plock. The new coach of the Danish team Aron Kristjansson steered his team to a thrilling 26:25 victory in Poland, which extended the winning streak of KIF in the European club competitions against Plock to six matches. While Kolding Kobenhavn can still hope for a top two finish meaning a seeded position for the Last 16 draw, the Polish runners-up will certainly end up among unseeded teams of Pot 3 or 4.

KIF also completed a sweep of Polish teams in Group B as they won all four matches against Kielce and Plock.

Group B

Orlen Wisla Plock vs KIF Kolding Kobenhavn 25:26 (8:10)

When KIF scored for 26:21 lead with less than four minutes left their victory seemed to sealed, but Balkan contingent of Plock refused to give up and Nikcevic's breakthrough from the left wing, Zrnic's fantastic trickshot and Ghionea's shot from right wing brought the home team back to the game. They even scored for 25:26 and had a ball possession in the final minute, but they failed to get to the shot.

"We are happy to get two points today. It was very hard to get them as the defence of Plock players was strong. The first half was good, Kasper Hvidt did a good job today," Kolding's new coach said.

Kristjansson vowed to show a focus and a good defence in Poland and his players really did. For the first ten minutes the held the hosts scoreless, while they scored three goals. From early start the absence of injured centre back of Plock Mariusz Jurkiewicz was too visible.

When Petar Nenadic got his team on the board he started a chase and within five minutes both teams were abreast (4:4).

With his third goal in the match Nenadic reached the milestone of 50 goals as the fifth player of the season, but the visitors quickly returned to their patient game in the defence supported by numerous saves from Kasper Hvidt (53 % in the first half), who was the main reason for the worst first half of Plock in the current season (eight goals).

After the break the Danish side increased the lead to four goals and although Plock were desperately trying to return to the game, they could not find the way through the defensive 6-0 wall of the guests.

"It was a good game and we are happy we won, what was our goal today in this wonderful arena. It was a lot of tactical game for both teams. We have a new coach and I am sure it was a good start for his work with KIF," Torsten Laen said.

Kolding's Albert Rocas was the top scorer of the game with 6 goals, Vedran Zrnic and Marcin Lijewski led Plock with five goals each.

"We made a lot of mistakes in attack. We couldn't use Mariusz Jurkiewicz skills today what was a bad luck for us. Yesterday I was sure he would play, but suddenly he suffered an injury," explained Plock coach Manolo Cadenas.

TEXT: Kate Pankowska / br