Zagreb take two precious points while Paris and Szeged come back victorious
After Barça’s win yesterday against Flensburg-Handewitt, Paris had to win in Aalborg this afternoon in order to remain level at the top of group A. However, the mission was going to be tough as the Danish side had won all their games at home since the beginning of the season.
Further down the standings, Zagreb and Elverum played against each other and the loser could almost say goodbye to the sixth place, especially since Celje had the opportunity to break further away on the rankings, playing at home against Szeged.
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Paris are tied at the top of the group with Barcelona while Szeged are just one point behind. Paris and Barcelona will play against each other next week
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Sander Sagosen and Mikkel Hansen scored seven for Paris as did Bence Banhidi for Szeged
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Damir Bicanic netted eight times for Zagreb
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Zagreb won their first game of the season and are now three points from Celje who are in sixth place
GROUP A
Aalborg Handbold (DEN) vs Paris Saint-Germain HB (FRA) 29:32 (14:17)
It took Paris twenty minutes to settle in the game defensively. All the while, Buster Juul-Larsen and Mark Marcher enjoyed easy goals to give Aalborg a early advantage. The hosts were never more than two goals ahead, though, as Mikkel Hansen and Sander Sagosen kept the visitors in the game. And the more the clock moved on, the more Paris took the upper hand.
Four straight goals gave the opportunity to the visitors to turn the score around. And thanks to another 4:0 series, Paris took a four-goals advantage, thanks to an empty net goal by Adama Keita, five minutes before half-time.
Aalborg used their time in the dressing room to get their heads in the right way and came back on the court with better intentions. More compact defensively, the Danish side slowly made up for their disadvantage thanks to fast plays by Mads Christiansen and Magnus Jensen. With thirteen minutes remaining, the hosts were back within one, and you could feel that Paris were not that confortable.
PSG's experience took advantage as Sander Sagosen and Kamil Syprzak converted important shots for their team to keep its security cushion. The Danish centreback gave a four-goals advantage to Paris one minute before the end of the game, meaning the French side were going home with the two points.
PSG coach, Raul Gonzalez Gutierrez said: "We knew it was going to be a tough game, and it certainly turned out that way. Aalborg played a great game, and we needed to be fully focused throughout the game to secure the victory today. Luckily we did play at a high level throughout the most of the match, and I am very satisfied and happy with today’s result."
HC PPD Zagreb (CRO) vs Elverum Handball (NOR) 30:27 (16:13)
If the first leg in Norway had been a relatively offensive game, with each team scoring 30, the return tonight was way more defensive. A slow rhythm that suited Zagreb best.
Despite being down by two after ten minutes, the Croatian side bounced back into the game, thanks to three of their key players. David Mandic, Zlatko Horvat and Damir Bicanic scored three each in the first half, as the hosts’ defence locked the way to its goal. Five minutes before the break, Zagreb were ahead by three (14:11).
The Croatian side did increase their lead thanks to two seven-meters by Damir Bicanic, who gave his team the first four-goals advantage of the game shortly after coming back from the dressing-room. Elverum immediately reacted, scoring four goals in a row to make the score even four minutes later. Even better, they were ahead by two at the 44th thanks to the second goal by Thomas Solstad.
The end of the game was going to be a thriller, with each game scoring back-and-forth. And in this configuration, Zagreb proved to be the better team. Matej Asanin stopped a couple of crucial saves between the posts while, at the other end of the court, David Mandic and Marin Sipic’s hands were not shaking when came the time to increase their teams’ lead. The lineplayer sealed the deal, giving his team a three-goals victory (30:27) at the start of the last minute, and he and his teammates could celebrate their first win of the season.
Zagreb coach, Veselin Vujovic said: "Elverum are really playing quality handball despite of the fact they have a very young team and I'd like to take the opportunity to congratulate them. We've played two quality halves here today, with an exception of those ten minutes in the middle of the second when we allowed them to get back into this one. However, after that, we were once again aggressive and played like a real team taking an important win in the end and keeping those minimum hopes of reaching the knock-out phase alive."
RK Celje Pivovarna Lasko (SLO) vs MOL-Pick Szeged (HUN) 23:34 (11:19)
The start of the first half was a one-sided affair, with the visitors immediately taking the upper hand. If, in the first instants, the two teams were playing equal, Szeged quickly put their feet to the pedal, scoring six unanswered goals.
On the right-wing, Bogdan Radivojevic was firing on all cylinders and thanks to his four goals, his team were ahead by seven after 15 minutes (4:11). And things didn’t improve for the hosts, as Roland Mikler put on a real show between Szeged’s posts. Thanks to his saves and Jonas Kallman’s fastbreaks, the Hungarian side had an even bigger advantage at the break (19:11).
With such an advantage, all Szeged had to do in the second half was to control the pace of the game and make sure their opponents didn’t catch the momentum. And using all their experience, that’s the exactly what the Hungarian team’s players did.
The ten-goals lead mark was reached at the 39th minute, when Stanislav Kasparek scored his second straight goal (23:13). And despite Josip Sarac’s nice performance (6 goals), Celje were never going to get back into the game, losing the second leg of the confrontation with Szeged by eleven goals in the end (34:23).
Szeged coach Juan Carlos Pastor said: "It is never easy to play here, no matter to this result. We have prepared very well and played extremely good first half. In the second we have had some troubles at the beginning, but later took back the control and secured very important win. Congrats to the home team and their supporters for the great atmosphere in the hall.”
TEXT:
Kevin Domas / tj