Hamburg celebrates its second victory

Round 4 of the VELUX EHF Champions League opened today with three matches. Expected victories were celebrated in Germany and in Russia, whilst in Romania HCM Constanta beat Bosna Sarajevo by one goal in an exciting, tight game.

Group B

HSV Hamburg - IK Sävehof 33:24 (16:14)

After three away games in a row, HSV Hamburg returned home and celebrated with a 9 goal victory against their Swedish opponent.

The two teams were level at the beginning, when Hamburg made a slow start and had some problems with their game plan. This meant that the lead changed hands several times. The Swedes were scoring marvelous goals on fast breaks, whilst Hamburg finished stronger towards the end of the first half, heading to the dressing room with a two goal lead.

In the second half, Hamburg goalkeeper Per Sandström performed very well between the sticks and his countrymen from Sävehof had difficulty in scoring against him. This enabled Hamburg to quickly increase its lead, first to four, then to six goals. The local team showed a significant improvement in its performance, and the game’s top scorer with six goals, Blazenko Lackovic, scored impressively from the back. Sävehof could muster nothing more and the home team were clear winners. Hamburg, with four points out of eight, awaits the next home match against Tatran Presov on the 20th November 2010.

Group C

Chekhovskie Medvedi - Kadetten Schaffhausen 38:35 (21:15)

With their third victory in four games, the team of coach Vladimir Maximov took the lead of the Group, whilst Schaffhausen needs to achieve better results in the next phase of the group matches to remain in the VELUX EHF Champion’s League.

Despite losing against Russian group favourite Medvedi, the result is absolutely acceptable for the Swiss club of Schaffhausen. Kadetten lost against a top team containing many Russian internationals, among them, middle back Vasily Filippov, the top scorer of the game with 9 goals. The Swiss players fought hard during the whole game, but last year’s EHF Champions League FINAL4 participant Medvedi won the two important points at home, celebrating a clear victory in the Chekhov arena. This victory has been the most valued birthday gift for trainer Vladimir Maximov, who celebrated its 65th birthday last Sunday.

Group D

HCM Constanta - HC Bosna Sarajevo 26:25 (16:12)

After a very tough game, Romanian HCM Constanta celebrated its first victory in this year’s VELUX EHF Champions League campaign and now has good cards for reaching fourth spot in the Group.

The home team made a storming start, and within 13 minutes, the team of newly-appointed coach Eden Hairi led by six goals (7:1). Bosna Sarajevo had to react and changed its defensive formation to 3-2-1 and 5-1. This had the desired effect, as the away team started to close the gap, and in the 28th minute the game was level again. (12:12) In the last two and a half minutes of the first half, the Romanians concentrated better and Bosna Sarajevo made some costly mistakes in defence. This allowed Constanta to score four times and regain the lead at half time.

Despite a better start for Sarajevo in the second half, the home team kept pushing and scored goal after goal. The biggest gap between the two clubs was in the 43rd minute (22:15), before the Bosnians woke up for the last 15 minutes. Even so, their fight-back was not enough to turn the game, and the Romanian side celebrated its first victory of the season, along with nearly 2000 spectators.