Płock outshine Kielce as two rivals meet in Polish league

A world class performance from goalkeeper Marin Šego and great team play handed Orlen Wisła Płock a victory over Polish league rivals Vive Targi Kielce in the match between two teams from the European cup competitions.

Kielce will play Metalurg in the ehfTV Match of the Week of the VELUX EHF Champions League Round 5 in Skopje on Sunday, 18 November (18:00 hrs local time) and Płock will meet Russia´s Sungul Snezhinsk in the last qualifying round of the EHF Cup Group Phase (24 November and 1 December).

The Croatian goalkeeper had an outstanding 20 saves in the 60 minutes for Lars Walther's team. All 5400 spectators in the Orlen Arena cheered for Šego and gave a standing ovation to the Polish league leaders.

In the post-match analysis, coach Lars Walther was full of praise for his goalkeepers: "Šego was outstanding, but Wichary also saved a penalty which was important for my team."

The first half of the Polish handball derby saw an excellent game by Orlen Wisła Płock player, Petar Nenadić, while a surprising high number of unforced errors from both teams showed how important the occasion was.

The first half was level and although Płock gained an advantage with their aggressive defence, leading 14:12 in  the 21st minute, Vive Targi Kielce came back to level the half time score at 16:16.

“Matches like that are very important for us, we cannot make so many mistakes during them,” said Sławomir Szmal, Kielce’s goalkeeper.

After the break Šego remained almost unbeatable, Płock played strong in defence and attack and the defending champions lacked the means to score goals. Even Ivan Čupić, who has scored 32 goals in the VELUX EHF Champions League so far was stopped by Marcin Wichary from seven meters.

With the score at 27:21 after 48 minutes, everything looked well and good for Plock, but then Kielce woke up and reduced the margin to four goals.

It became obvious that Płock had lost their strength and confidence in attack, giving the team which is on the top in Group C of the VELUX EHF Champions League a chance to turn the game.

But four goals by Walther’s players made home-team´s fans go crazy, singing “Wisła, Wisła” as they led 31:23 with only seven minutes to play.  The game ended with a safe 32:25 victory for the hosts.

After the match Kielce’s Bogdan Wenta coach said: “Płock were better than us. Maybe we came into the match too self-confident, we believed that we are the favourites on paper, but as it turned out, they were the better team.”

Photo: Paweł Jakubowski