Löwen celebrate group phase comeback with narrow win

USAM Nimes Gard, who are celebrating their maiden voyage in European Cup handball this season, were leading for great parts of the match against Rhein-Neckar Löwen.

But in the end, the experienced Bundesliga team managed to take a narrow win.

• The match was Rhein-Neckar Löwen´s first EHF Cup group match in seven years due to VELUX EHF Champions League participation in the meantime
• The match was Nimes´ first European group match in history
• Nimes were leading by three goals early in the second half, but did not manage to hold on
• Andre Schmid scored eight goals for Rhein-Neckar Löwen, Mohamad Sanad the same for Nimes

GROUP B

Rhein-Neckar Löwen (GER) vs USAM Nimes Gard (FRA) 32:31 (16:16)

Rhein-Neckar Löwen managed to live up to their status as favourites, but only after a tough fight against the European debutants from France.

Nimes started in optimistic style by changing a 4:2 deficit to 6:4 in their own favour.

They did not have much trouble with Rhein-Neckar Löwen´s 6-0 defence and went on to take several more two-goal leads.

Even though Rhein-Neckar Löwen continued to catch up, Nimes kept taking the lead again, until the home team equalised before half-time.

Nimes continued after the break, where they left off before going to the dressing room, and they even got three goals up at 21:18.

Rhein-Neckar Löwen came back again, but Nimes stayed in the lead most of the time, before the experienced home team took a series of one-goal leads at the end, and in the last seconds, Jannik Kohlbacher could score the winning goal.