01.11.2014, 10:04
Zagreb teams lead the field at EHF Champions Cup

All is set for Sunday’s semi-finals at the inaugural EHF Champions Cup in Gran Canaria, and the only nation to have to two teams in the knock-out stage is Croatia, with the women’s and the men’s team of Detono Zagreb dominating on Day 2 of the event

Zagreb teams lead the field at EHF Champions Cup

Things came down to the wire on Day 2 of the inaugural EHF Beach Handball Champions Cup on Saturday.

After each of the participating 20 teams had played their first couple of matches on Friday, the group phase concluded on Saturday and only the two top-ranked teams of each group qualified for the semi-finals.

Group A in the women’s event saw the closest decision of all, as German side Brüder Ismaning and the OVB Beach Girls from Hungary, the winners of this year’s ebt Finals, had both finished with two wins and two defeats, but Ismaning had won the direct encounter on Friday 2:1 and hence they placed second.

It might have helped that the German team had some exceptional support as Astrid Grotelueschen, a German Member or Parliament, was on site on Friday.

First in Group A came the Croatian women’s side Detono Zagreb who won all of their four matches, firmly establishing themselves as one of the event’s favourites.

In Group B Skrim Kongsberg from Norway came first ahead of Italian team FIGH Esercito Futura Roma. Both teams won three matches each and lost one.

The semi-finals Skrim Kongsberg against Brüder Ismaning and Zagreb against Roma are both played at 10:30 hrs on Sunday.

Malaga still to lose a single set

In the men’s event no tricky calculations were needed to decide the semi-finalists.

In Group A BHC SKKM-EKATERINODAR did not lose a single match and hence they comfortably placed first ahead of Detono Zagreb who lost their match against the Russian side but won their remaining three matches.

In Group B Club BM Playa Ciudad de Malaga from Spain did not only won all their four matches; so far they have not even lost a single set.

The second ranked team in Group B and therefore the second semi-finalist from Group B became the Dabas Beach Boy’z from Hungary

The semi-finals EKATERINODAR against the Beach Boy’z and Malaga against Zagreb are played at 9:45 hrs on Sunday morning.

The finals are played at 14:15 hrs in the women’s event and at 15:00 hrs in the men’s event (all timings are local)

Further information

All matches on the main court are streamed live via the event’s website: http://www.grancanariabhb.com/video/.  There is also a live ticker for all matches.

Several matches are available on demand on the event’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/grancanariaBHB/videos

More information on the tournament is available on the event's official website.

For regular update from European beach handball join the ever-growing community on the EHF’s official Beach Handball Facebook page.

TEXT: EHF / ts