02.03.2021, 08:20
Young guns secure eighth Löwen victory

GROUP D REVIEW: By losing at Mannheim. GOG do not have second rank in their own hands anymore

Rhein-Neckar Löwen remained unbeaten in all group matches, in which they were on the court, while GOG have to wait for the very last match of this group between Kadetten Schaffhausen and Eurofarm Pelister Bitola to know their final ranking position. Match winners for the group winners were their young guns such as Philipp Ahouansou and veteran goalkeeper Nikolas Katsigiannis.

GROUP D:

Rhein-Neckar Löwen (GER) vs. GOG (DEN) 32:24 (17:13)

• Löwen had confirmed the top position of the group already after round 8, they finished on 17 points, their only defeat was the assessed result at Bitola.
• GOG remain on twelve points and still can get passed by Kadetten Schaffhausen.
• After GOG had taken the upper hand in the initial period, Löwen got stronger after minute 14, but it took until minute 26, when they had scored their first three-goals advance at 14:11.
• Right after the break. The hosts shifted to express mode and decided the match within six minutes only and the intermediate score of 21:15.
• The 32:22 two minutes before the end, the distance was double-figured for the first and only time.
  GOG had to replace their World Champion and All-Star team right back Mathias Gidsel, while Löwen gave a lot of playing time for their young players.
• Löwen goalkeeper Nikolas Katsigiannis saved 15 shots to finish on a percentage of 46%.

19-year-old Ahouansou with another strong performance

After scoring his season-high of eleven goals against Trimo Trebnje two weeks ago, 19-year-old Philipp Ahouansou was one of the match winners against GOG again. This time the left-back - like Jannik Kohlbacher - scored seven times - and was the second-best Löwen scorer below Swedish left-wing Jerry Tollbring (25 years old), who netted eight times.

TEXT: EHF / Björn Pazen