HSV and Gummersbach remain spotless 

Good Sunday for the German clubs: HSV Hamburg and VfL Gummersbach made a big step in the direction of the second group phase: HSV Handball won away against ZTR Zaporozhje 28:24 (15:14), while VfL Gummersbach was the winner against Celje 32:28 (15:12).

Goalkeeper Per Sandstöm was the match winner for Hamburg again with a lot of saves against the Ukrainian champion.  

“We did not show our best performance, but at the end we won and this is the important,” said Hans Lindbergh after the match as HSV stay on top of their group with three victories in three matches. With a good defence, HSV were in the lead 10:6 after 16 minutes. The time of Sandström has arrived who took more then ten balls in the first 30 minutes. Because of him, Hamburg were in front at 15:11, but Zaporozhje made use of the mistakes of the Germans to come back to 14:15 at halftime.

The teams were five minutes into the second half when the match had to be interrupted – the scoreboard was out of order and the timekeeper had to reset the exact time with his clock at the table.

After the 16:16, a Ukrainian player, Andriy Natalyuk received a red card after his third suspension. Then HSV were the better team and scored four times in a row. Pascal Hens decided the match with his goal that made it 28:22. HSV’s Russian international, Dimitry Torgowanow, could not play due to an injury.  

“Our most important weapon was defence,” said goalkeeper Sandström. “Now we can calm down a bit with six points,” said Lindbergh.

Vfl win top game

VfL Gummersbach also reached their third victory in the third match and stay on top of the group. Only 2431 spectators attended this high quality match in Kölnarena where Gummersbach played. The German side were still missing Sigurdsson due to a shoulder operation. The match brought high-speed handball and the hosts had to give 100 percent to leave the field victorious.  

Top scorer, Momir Illic, was also not able to play against his former club due to a leg injury he picked up during Friday’s training session.

Norwegian Kenneth Klev started in the backcourt and he led his team to a dream start with 5:0, 8:1 and 10:2 – the best VfL start in this season. The spectators celebrated the goalkeeper Goran Stojanovic who made a great performance.  

However, after Celje changing goalkeeper (Gorazd Skof replaced by Aljosa Rezar), the Slovenians played better and reduced the difference to 14:8 and 15:12 (halftime).

The match nearly took a complete change: Celje now had 100 percent shoot efficiency, while Gummersbach were weaker and weaker with no energy in the offence. Celje equalised at 17:17 and 20:20 before Gummersbach – especially the top scorer of the game, Slovenian Roman Pungartnik, – found their speed again.  

VfL were back in lead at 25:21 and 30:24, but Celje fought back. It was 30:28 before Vedran Zrnic (also a former Celje player) scored to decide the game.

“It was very hard for us to play without Momir Illic, so I have to compliment my team. We did not want to take a risk with Momir, so we replaced him,” said VfL coach Alfred Gislasson:

“Every time we reduced the speed, Celje grew stronger. But in the end my team were clever.” 

Celje’s legendary coach, Kasim Kamenica, was also proud of his team:

“We showed a strong performance and showed that we belong to the top teams of Europe. Gummersbach were somewhat better, but we will meet again for the return match and we will give all to reach the second group phase.”