25.02.2019, 08:00
Mitrevski and Kevic excel as Constanta take first points

GROUP C REVIEW: The goalkeeper and the centre back played important roles as the Romanian side earned an important 34:26 victory over Cuenca to throw Men’s EHF Cup Group C wide open again

Mitrevski and Kevic excel as Constanta take first points

HC Dobrogea Constanta failed to gather any points from their first two matches in the Men’s EHF Cup Group Phase, but on Monday night they delighted their Romanian home crowd with a convincing 34:26 win against Liberbank Cuenca.

The result means that now three teams - Constanta, Cuenca and TTH Holstebro - are all on two points in Group C, while FC Porto Sofarma are leading with the maximum six points.

• Constanta centre back Janko Kevic scored 10 goals, while outstanding goalkeeper Nikola Mitrevski prevented Cuenca from coming back

• Leonardo Dutra led for the guests from Cuenca, scoring eight times

• Constanta’s first win of the group phase opens up the battle for second place behind runaway leaders Porto

GROUP C

HC Dobrogea Sud Constanta (ROU) vs Liberbank Cuenca (ESP) 34:26 (16:10)

With 10 goals from 12 attempts, Croatian centre back Janko Kevic played a major part as Constanta took their first points in the group phase. And the Romanian team did so in style, defeating Cuenca by no less than eight goals.

After his excellent performance, Kevic said "it was all about the team today."

"The goalkeeper was good, we played very well in defence, we had fast breaks," the top scorer added. "With our fans supporting us and playing as a team, we showed that we can win against anyone.”

Both teams had their trouble opening the score, and it took more than four minutes before Leonardo Dutra brought Cuenca 1:0 up.

But Constanta soon were in control of the game. They went from 3:3 to 6:3, and later to 11:6 and 13:7. While they maintained a six-goal lead at half-time (16:10), they opened up an even bigger gap in the high-scoring second half.

However, Cuenca reduced the deficit to four goals at one point, but a brilliant performance from Nikola Mitrevski in the Constanta goal and the ongoing goal-scoring from Kevic contributed to the home team increasing their lead again and ultimately winning by eight goals.

“We start very well, with confidence, and we played 60 minutes as we planned. Every player gave everything on the court," Constanta coach Zvonko Sundovski said.

His counterpart, Cuenca's Lidio Jimenez, criticised his own team: "They were really focused on the game, and we were not. They believed in the victory, and we didn’t. The goalkeeper was really good today. If you want to win this kind of games, you must be stronger in defence.”

Both teams meet again this Sunday for the return fixture in Spain.

TEXT: Peter Bruun / ew