Even as some of the favoured teams had problems on home soil in the second leg of the last 16 they’re through to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. Barcelona and Veszprem took very narrow victories, Montpellier was close to lose against Kolding, but won both points and Hamburg even lost against Kielce. Only the reigning champion Ciudad Real took a clear and easy victory.
On Tuesday the draw for the quarterfinals will take place in Vienna at 11 AM. The winners of the group phase will be in pot 1, the second ranked teams are in pot 2.
Currently those pots contain:
Pot 1: Montpellier, Veszprem, Ciudad Real
Pot 2: Hamburg, Chechov, Barcelona
Tomorrow the matches Kiel – FCK and Löwen against Valadolid will finalize the last 16 round. Both German teams won their away matches in the first leg.
Last 16, second leg:
FC Barcelona Borges – Croatia Osiguranje Zagreb 36:33 (17:18)
The match was completely different to the clear game one week ago in Zagreb (33:26), as Barca had hard work to do against the strong Croatian rival. Until the final stage the match was open, as the Catalans lacked accuracy and concentration in some parts. Barca coachXavi Pascual was only satisfied with the qualification for the next round: “We had problems in finding into the match. In the second part we improved, but in total we didn’t play 100 percent, as we seemed to be tired. We can’t make so many mistakes in the quarterfinals. If we can not beat the big opponents, we do not deserve to win the Final Four.” Juanín García achieved his personal score record in this CL season with ten goals. Same as Iker Romero with nine goals. Top scorer for Zagreb was right wing Mirza Dzomba with nine goals. His opinion of the last 16 matches: “Barcelona decided this round in Zagreb. Today we played better, but it was impossible to win with seven goals in the Palau Blaugrana.” His coach Nenad Klajic shared this opinion: “FC Barcelona really settled the tie in the first leg. Barca is a better team than ours and I've only had ten days to work with the team. We have endured a long time before we lost concentration. We kept up to one of the best teams in Europe.”
HSV Hamburg – Vive Targi Kielce 27:30 (15:16)
Despite this defeat HSV is among the eight best teams of the CL, as they had won the first leg 30:24 at Kielce. The re match was open until the final stage, with the better end for the Polish champion. Top scorer of the game was Kielce pivot Rastko Stojkovic with nine goals, Hans Lindbergh and Domagoj Duvnjak scored each six times for Hamburg. Kielce took the lead with a 4:0 series after the 4:3 for HSV and kept it until the middle of the second half, even as HSV could equalize some times. The host went in front at the score of 23:22 for the one and only time again. The last 16 minutes were completely equal, Kielce deiced the game in the last three minutes with three consecutives goals after the 27:27. “It was hard work to qualify for the quarterfinals, as Kielce played much better than in the first leg,” HSV coach Martin Schwalb said: “But considering both matches we deserved the next step of the knock out stage.” For Kielce coach Bogdan Wenta it was “a brilliant result. We came here to fight and to improve. We return home with a great experience.” Top scorer Stojkovic wished “HSV to win the Champions League. For us the victory in Hamburg means the same, as if they would have won the CL. We will work hard for the next season and maybe we’re able to win both matches in the last 16.”
HB Montpellier – KIF Kolding 28:23 (12:14)
Like Hamburg and Barcelona Montpellier had severe problems in the second leg. And as the French champion only made a draw in the first leg they needed a victory to go on – and nearly failed in the last 16. But by improving in the “crunch time” of the game Montpellier reached the quarterfinals. For 45 minutes Kolding was on eye level with the favoured team from France, after the Danes had led 14:12 at the break. But in the end the individual class and the more of power decided the game. Match winners for Montpellier were the goalkeepers Nebosa Stojinovic and Daouda Karaboue and – but only in the final stage – Nikola Karabatic. After Karaboue had saved a penalty shot of Bo Spellerberg in minute 49 and David Juricek had scored the 20:18 the French were in lead for the first time with two goals in this tough match – the pre decision.
MKB Veszprem – HBM Constanta 27:26 (14:9)
The final result of the Veszprem victory looks quite closer as the match had been: The Hungarians played an outstanding first half and then saved some powers after the break. Thanks to nine goals of Toma the Romanians could reduce the gap, but after losing the first match in Buzau 23:27 it was obvious that it was nearly impossible for Constanta to reach the quarterfinals. Top scorer for Veszprem was Perez with six goals. After 22 minutes the game was pre decided as Veszprem led 12:3, before Constanta improved in defense and reduced the gap until the break to 9:14. Until minute 49 the distance remained quite comfortable, before Veszprem lacked concentration and Constanta nearly won the match. “We made too many technical mistakes,” Veszprem coach Lajos Mocsai said and added: “I’m proud that we have reached the round of the eight best teams of the world despite all the problems we had in the last weeks.” Marko Vujin, who returned after a four month injury break, said: “For the first 15 minutes we played great then we decreased.” Constanta coach Eden Hairi believes in Veszprem as a Final4 participant: „They have the power to go so far. We were very glad to be among the 16 best team in Champions League. The last 16 round was decided in Buzau.”
Ciudad Real – Gorenje Velenje 36:31 (18:15)
Victory number 12 in CL match number 12 was never endangered as was the qualification for the quarterfinals for Ciudad Real after the clear 31:23 one week ago in Velenje. The Spanish team was in lead for the whole 60 minutes and the distance was minimum three goals. Ciudad started well and increased the gap until the final stage of the first half to 16:10. Velenje reduced the distance to 20:23 in the beginning of the second half, before Ciudad again took full control of the match until the end. Top scorers were Evdokimov (6) and Entrerrios (5) for the Spaniards and Bezjak, Rnic, Golcar, Cupic and Simis, who scored each five goals for Velenje. Despite the defeat Gorenje coach Brnaco Tamse praised his team: “We made a good job against one of the best teams in the world.” Croatian wing player Ivan Cupic was satisfied, too: “We are happy with our match, even as we playedbad in defense. But after the break we showed some good counter attacks.”Ciudad Real coach Talant Dushebajew, whose son Alex scored one goal, said: “I’m happy with the work of my team and I think that we did a complete match, with some mistakes that we need to improve,but the goal of the next round is in our hands.”