Dramatic comeback sees Kielce go 10 for 10

KS Vive Tauron Kielce go through the group phase of the VELUX EHF Champions League as the only team with maximum points after chasing down a nine-goal deficit to win by one away against HC Motor Zaporozhye.

The home team, on the other hand, will have wait until the last games of the weekend to find out if they qualify for the Last 16.

VELUX EHF Champions League Group D
HC Motor Zaporozhye (UKR) vs KS Vive Tauron Kielce (POL) 27:28 (19:10)

Despite leading by nine goals, Motor could not hold on and allowed Kielce to take both points after an impressive comeback.

Kielce, with only 12 players on the team roster and usual right wing Ivan Cupic acting as the playmaker in attack, had their trouble with Motor's offensive defence from the start and it took the visitors four and a half minute to score their first goal in the match and equalise at 1:1.

The home team kept the initiative, though, and went ahead 5:3, 7:4, 12:7, 17:9, before taking a commanding 19:10 lead at half-time, due to a combination of their aggressive defence and patient attacking play.

However, after suffering their worst half-time result since the 2003/04 season - 21:12 against Veszprem - it was definitely a different Kielce team to enter the court after the break.

The visitors scored the first three goals in the second half, and after 11 minutes they had caught up with five of the nine goals.

Kielce came forward in the defence, meeting their opponents further up the court, which proved to give them the initiative as the contest became more closely fought by the minute.

With 37 seconds left Karol Bielecki levelled the scores at 27:27, before Motor lost the ball in attack and saw Mateusz Jachewski give the guests their only lead of the match with 11 seconds to play.

That one lead was enough for the win and while Kielce end the group phase with a perfect 100% winning record, Motor will have to wait until the weekend’s other Group D fixtures to know if they have a future in the tournament.