THW Kiel was defeated with 31:24 by the Champions League title holder in the second semifinal of the Champions Trophy in Veszprem. THW missed a lot his best player, Nikola, not only in attack, but also in defence.
The game in Hungary was pretty similar to the second leg of the Champions League Final four months ago. The squad coached now by Alfred Gislason found very seldom solutions against the open defence of the Spaniards. More than this, when Jicha and the others managed to breakthrough, they failed against Ciudad´s goalkeeper, Arpad Sterbik.
That´s why Kiel could keep up with Rutenka, Laen und the others only in the first quarter of the match. From 8:7, the Spanish team progressed to 11:7 and maintained this margin until the last minutes of the first half. The half break result was 14:11 for Ciudad Real.
The next 30 minutes were catastrophic for the Zebras. After Stefan Lövgren brought his team to two goals (15:13/34.), the German Champions got 5 goals in a row in 4 minutes and scored no at all (20:13/38.)! The worse came after it, when the rival extended its lead to a incredible 9 goals (23:14/42., 24:15/43).
THW tried hard to avoid the debacle and within 8 minutes before the final whistle, between the two teams was "only" a difference of 5 goals (25:20). The goalie Andreas Palicka saved some important goals, his teammates came to 27:22 with 6 minutes to go, but easy chances, among them the third 7 meter shot of the evening, were missed and, Ciudad Real won deserved in the end with 31:24.
In the game for the 3rd place, Kiel witt meet tomorrow, at 13 o´clock, HSG Nordhorn, beaten 39:30 by MKB Veszprem.
Statistics
THW Kiel - Ciudad Real 24:31 (11:14)
THW Kiel : Omeyer (1.-42., 9 saves), Palicka (42.-60., 9 saves) ; Lund (1), K. Andersson (6), Lundström (1), Kavticnik (4), Anic, Lövgren (2/1), Ahlm (4), Klein (2), Jicha (4) ; Coach: Gislason
BM Ciudad Real : Hombrados (52.-60., 0 save), Sterbik (1.-52., 13 save) ; Laen (5), Källman (3), Pajovic (3), Stefansson (4/2), Davis, Parrondo (2), Urios (didn´t play), Abalo (4), Metlicic (2), Chema Rodriguez, Rutenka (7/2), Morros (1), Dinart ; Coach : Dujshebaev
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