EHFCL Round 13 recap: Victories for PPD Zagreb, Telekom Veszprem and Meshkov Brest

Zlatko Horvat

Five SEHA teams were during the weekend active in EHF Champions League group stage round 13 with three of them managing to grab two new points. It's time for another recap of SEHA team's appearances in Europe's elite club handball championship.

(Group A) PPD Zagreb – Aalborg 31:30
PPD Zagreb were on Saturday with 31:30 better than Dannish Aalborg after one of the craziest game endings of the season. Ante Gadza managed to put his team in front with less than 30 seconds left to play but Aalborg managed to respond pretty quickly levelling the match with less than 5 seconds to go. 'Lions' tried to kick the ball off immediately with Aalborg's Mollgaard interrupting them for which he received a direct red card. Last second seven-meter shot was rewarded and Zlatko Horvat knew how to take advantage of it helping his team stay in race for the knock-out stage. Ante Gadza led Zagreb in this one with nine while Zlatko Horvat added seven.

(Group B) Motor Zaporozhye – Kielce 26:33
Motor failed to stun favored Polish side at home after already losing all hopes of reaching the knock-out stage due to a loss against Meshkov in the last round. After the first half they were already five goals behind allowing guests to open the gap to seven until the end of the game. Artem Kozakevych led his team with five goals while Barys Pukhouski added four.

(Group B) Porto Sofarma – Vardar 30:22
Macedonians suffered a tough defeat in Portugal despite of the fact they managed to deliver a solid first-half performance when they were only one goal behind. However in the second half Portuguese side managed to speed up the tempo outscoring ‘Red&Black’ 19:12 for an, in the end, dominant win. Daniil Shishkarev led Vardar with seven goals.

(Group B) Meshkov Brest – Kiel 33:30
Meshkov orchestrated one of the biggest surprises of the round defeating highly-favored German Kiel in Brest. Belarusians were already three goals in front of the first half led by incredible Mikita Vailupau who finished the match with 11 goals while Marko Panic added six. Unfortunately for Meshkov, they already lost all chances of reaching the knock-out stage but they are clearly heating up with SEHA Play-Off matches right around the corner.

(Group B) Telekom Veszprem – Montpellier 24:23
Hungarians have with a win over Montpellier managed to secure second place in group B after the group stage. In a tough match Dragan Gajic led Veszprem with seven while Rasmus Lauge Schmidt and Manuel Strlek added three each. Arpad Sterbik also proved his class once again in the end being officially named MVP of the game which was given ‘Match of the week’ title by the European handball federation.