Szeged maximise home advantage

MOL-Pick Szeged continued their fine form against German opposition by following up the elimination of Rhein-Neckar Löwen with a two-goal victory against THW Kiel in their VELUX EHF Champions League Quarter-final first leg on Sunday.

The Hungarian side produced a marvelous performance to become the only home team to triumph in the quarter-finals so far, although Kiel remain favourites to advance after the return in seven days.

VELUX EHF Champions League Quarter-final first leg

MOL-Pick Szeged (HUN) vs THW Kiel (GER) 31:29 (17:15)

Feeding off the energy of a sell-out home crowd, Szeged made a flying start.

The hosts' 5+1 defence, backed by some great goalkeeping by José Sierra, forced Alfred Gislason into taking his first timeout in just the ninth minute, with Kiel already trailing by four goals.

The German side began to find their attacking rhythm but Szeged, and Dean Bombac in particular, executed a flurry of impressive offences of their own to maintain a two-goal advantage as the goals flew in at both ends.

Kiel improved throughout but did not create their first opportunity to level the scores until the 40th minute. And when that chance did arrive, Jonas Källman - who had undergone an appendectomy just two weeks previously - scored a beautiful kempa goal to keep them at bay.

The eqauliser did materialise 10 minutes later, and it seemed that the hosts were running out of steam as their opponents, riding an 11-game winning streak, began to build momentum.

Kiel took the lead in the 53rd minute, but once again it was Bombac who provided the response, inspiring his team to a famous victory before finishing with a game-high six goals.

"Now we know how strong we are, beating Kiel was an awesome feat. I want to thank our fans who created a magnificent atmosphere," said the Slovenian playmaker.

Szeged coach, Juan Carlos Pastor, added: "I take a bow to my players. It is very difficult to play against such a strong team and we knew we needed to play as a team in order to beat them.

"We have kept the dream alive for a week and we will not give up dreaming.”

The job is far from done, however, with a trip to Germany for the second leg just seven days away.

"When we took the lead in the last 10 minutes I felt we had the game in hand but we didn't concentrate the last minutes," said Kiel left back Filip Jicha.

"We are looking forward to the second leg."