11.11.2018, 04:12
Historic first win for Cocks

GROUP D REVIEW: At their seventh attempt, Riihimäen Cocks managed to take their first win in the VELUX EHF Champions League, leaving Wacker Thun without a victory

Historic first win for Cocks

After seven tries, Riihimäen Cocks finally managed to earn their first win in their VELUX EHF Champions League history. But for Wacker Thun, the 31:29 defeat means that the Swiss club is now without a win in 17 Champions League matches.

• Cocks now have four points and are fifth in the group
• Thun are last in Group D with one point
• Nico Rönnberg scored nine goals for Cocks

GROUP D

Riihimäen Cocks (FIN) vs Wacker Thun (SUI) 31:29 (14:18)

After four defeats and two draws, Cocks finally managed to win a Champions League match.

"If you write a piece of history, it is always a big thing," said left wing Teemu Tamminen afterwards. "This is definitely the biggest win in my club career. These are the results we all dream of."

Wacker Thun, on the other hand, are still without a win in 17 matches in the competition.

After nine defeats and one draw in their first Champions League season in 2013/14, the Swiss club have now lost six and drawn one match in the group phase this time.

The start of the match in Finland belonged to Cocks who had several two-goal leads, but Thun began to dominate from the middle of the first half.

With five goals in a row, the visitors changed a 6:4 lead for Cocks into a 9:6 lead in their own favour. This was increased to six goals, before the home team managed to reduce the distance towards half time.

The home team continued to catch up from the start of the second half, and with 12 minutes left, Cocks equalised at 25:25, two minutes before taking the lead back at 26:25.

As Tamminen made it 31:28 for the Finnish champions in the last minute, the matter was decided.

Cocks' head coach Gintaras Savukynas said the win was a "big moment" for the team, club and all of Finnish handball.

"I am particularly pleased with the fact that we never gave up. The second half was much better than the first and we finally were able to play a good and complete last 30 minutes. It has been a different story earlier," he added.

TEXT: Peter Bruun/jh