Skjern celebrate Champions League return with four-goal win

Skjern Handbold celebrated their return to the VELUX EHF Champions League after 12 years of absence with a 32:28 win at home against Romanian champions HCM Baia Mare.

GROUP D

Skjern Handbold (DEN) vs HCM Baia Mare (ROU) 32:28 (17:12)

Skjern Handbold celebrated it with a four-goal win, as the Champions League returned to the Skjern Bank Arena for the first time in 12 years on Sunday afternoon.

The Danish runners-up were never behind, as they sent Romanian champions and Champions League debutants Baia Mare home with a defeat.

The visitors' captain Viorel Fotache scored the premiere goal for the newcomers, but in the first half, Baia Mare were only able to follow Skjern for the first 14 minutes, at which point the score was 6:6.

From then on, a fast playing Skjern team with a strong counter phase went ahead 10:6 and maintained a clear lead for the rest of the first half.

The visitors opened the last 30 minutes by putting renewed pressure on their opponents through an increased pace, and the nearly 100 Romanian fans among the 2247 spectators started believing in the triumph for their heroes, as the distance was reduced to two goals several times.

However, Skjern proved able to keep a clear head, and in the last minutes, they left no doubt about the result.

“We never really managed to make the deciding distance, but fortunately, we were good enough to win at the end. If we want to go on from our group, and we do, we will have to win our home games at the very least, so it was extremely important for us to start with a win,” Skjern captain Thomas Klitgaard told Danish TV.

“I am not really surprised that we lost, as I expect Skjern to be at the top of the group. We managed to get close at the beginning of the second half, but we were never able to close the gap, as we made too many mistakes in the deciding moments,” Baia Mare's Danish coach Lars Walther said.

Playmaker Lasse Mikkelsen scored nine times for Skjern, while right wing Marius Sadoveac scored eight goals for Baia Mare.