Strong start, relaxed finish

While three-time VELUX EHF Champions League champions THW Kiel took their eighth win in their tenth (and final) group match, FC Porto finished their international campaign heads held high – but without hope of victory in the Sparkassenarena.

Group B:

THW Kiel (GER) vs. FC Porto Vitalis (POR) 30:25 (17:11)

It was a special experience, something to remember for the rest of the careers, for the players of FC Porto Vitalis. Nearly 10,000 spectators attended the last international match of this season for the Portuguese champions and the final group match of their hosts Kiel.

The significance of this match was quite low, as the German side had already secured the group victory before and Porto had been eliminated from the Last 16 much earlier.

After 13 minutes Porto had to assume the worst, as they were down (and already beaten) by 1:10. But after building this lead, during which Porto needed six minutes to score their first goal, Kiel decelerated, rotated and gave playing time to the rest of the squad.

Mainly the back court axis was intermediately quite unusual, as THW coach Alfred Gislason had given Filip Jicha and Aron Palmarsson time to rest and recover after minor injuries.

As the Kiel defence did not keep up their initial show of strenth, Porto reduced the gap to six goals and with the opposition losing their focus, suddenly the Portuguese side were close to bridging the gap completely, but missed three chances at 18:22.

In the end, the goals of top scorer Christian Zeitz (six strikes) decided the one-sided match, in which the Portuguese performed well in the second half, which they even won 14:13. The top Porto scorers were Gilberto Duarte, Joao Ferraz and Pedro Spinola with five goals each.