Day review 1: Flensburg's Pedersen nets 14 times; Gummersbach, GOG win
After the early games in round 3 of the EHF European League Men group matches, SG Flensburg-Handewitt and VfL Gummersbach have kept their clean record of three victories with wins against MOL Tatabanya KC and FENIX Toulouse respectively. Flensburg wing August Pedersen netted 14 goals for Flensburg.
GOG also remain undefeated in group A after beating Abanca Ademar Leon 36:23, while in group D, three teams are equal on three points after CSM Constanta and Ystads IF HF earned their first wins.
It was a great win for us. Our defence is solid, and we score a lot of goals on fastbreaks. I think we handled their offensive efforts well with our defensive play. It was a good game for us, where we got many players involved.
It was a tough game, where we faced one of the best teams in Denmark, maybe even Europe. Their goalkeeper performed really well. I feel like we kept up for the first 20 minutes, but our success rate on finishing wasn’t great. We fought hard, but it wasn’t enough for us. We need these kinds of games to improve and develop.
The difference was quite big from the beginning, so the intensity disappeared early, but many of our processes can still be improved. But it will be another story in Tatabanya next week. I am satisfied with the concentration of our team.
From the beginning we made it too easy for Flensburg. We want to put up a better fight in the next game. We were not ready for this game. Let’s see one more time next week on Tuesday. The game will also be hard for us, but we will prepare as good as we can.
The first half was very even with good goalkeepers on both sides. We then went into the break with a lead and got off to the better start in the second half. We were very effective and I think we deserved to win, but I'd like to thank Toulouse. They are an excellent team and did well, even if we were a bit stronger in the second half.
It was a tough game against Gummersbach. We knew they are a really good team but we have a good dynamic at the moment in our team. So we expected to do something today, but we missed a lot of shots in the second half and lost too many balls. We also had problems, because Gummersbach plays a good fastbreak, but there is a second leg next week and we’re waiting for them so keep some points at home.
In the first half, they played better defence than we did. In the second half, we were very good and we improved. We gained distance, which was the key to the game.
In the second half we controlled the game and all in all we need to be satisfied about this win. It's never easy winning here and we must be proud. Especially wining by six goals, which means it's good for our goal difference.