20220914 Kielce Nantes 3
EHF Champions League

Perfect start, almost goal record for Kielce

MAL7445 V
EHF / Björn Pazen
14 September 2022, 22:41

In their opener of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League against HBC Nantes, Lomza Industria Kielce profited from their flying 9:3 start - and later on were never endangered by the 2018 Champions League finalists, winning 40:33 in the end.

The 2022 runners-up especially impressed with a well-balanced attack - and for sure are ready for next week’s MOTW against Barça, trying to take revenge for the defeat in the 2022 EHF FINAL4 final. Like the defending champions and Kiel before, Kielce secured an easy and clear opening victory in this tough group.

GROUP B

Lomza Industria Kielce (POL) vs. HBC Nantes (FRA) 40:33 (23:18) 

  • it only took nine minutes for new Nantes coach Gregory Cojean to take his first ever time-out in the Champions League, as his side was down by 3:9 after a lacklustre scoring efficiency, but then showed clear improvement, closing the gap to 15:17 
  • after 30 minutes and 41 goals, 20 different players were already on the scoreboard: 11 for Kielce, nine for Nantes. In the end, both teams had 12 scorers
  • the biggest difference at the break was the goalkeeper performance: Mateusz Kornecki and Andreas Wolff had eight saves from 26 shots, Ivan Pesic and Viktor Hallgrímsson only one save from 24 shots  
  • in the second half, Kielce easily pulled ahead to the decisive 30:22 scoreline in minute 40 - if they had continued scoring like this, they would have broken their Champions League goal record from the 41:17 victory against Rhein-Neckar Löwen in 2017 
  • with nine goals from 13 attempts, French international Aymeric Minne was clearly the best scorer for Nantes 

Kielce well-balanced in all positions 

Lomza Industria Kielce have proven their variety from all attacking positions already in their opener of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League.

With seven players scoring four or more goals against Nantes, they underlined their firepower either from the backs like Szymon Sicko or Igor Karacic, the wings Dylan Nahi or Arkadiusz Moryto and certainly from the line player position, as Nicolas Tournat (best scorer of his side with six strikes) and Artsem Karalek combined for 10 goals.  

This content is blocked

You said no to using cookies or similar tools that help improve your experience. To see this content, you would need to update your Privacy Preferences.

I’m very happy about the win, but I know we had luck,because Mateusz Kornecki made a few very important saves at the beginning and gave us the possibility to make fastbreaks. The first ten minutes were very important. For us, it’s the first win at the beginning of the Champions League in six years.
Talant Dujshebaev
Łomża Industria Kielce Head Coach
We played against one of the best teams in the competition, so it was a very hard game to begin the Champions League. We missed a lot of shots at the start of the game and after that, it was difficult to make up for it while playing against such a good team. We know that Kielce will play for the title; we just want to qualify for the next round.
Gregory Cojean
HBC Nantes Head Coach
20220914 Szeged Barca 6
Previous Article French connection steers Barça to clear opening win
20220914 Zagreb GOG 2
Next Article GOG cruise past Zagreb in opening match

Latest news

More News