In the race for the top two spots of group B, every point is important. And while Veszprém lost one last week at home against Porto, Kielce remained kings in their arena, defeating Motor on Wednesday.
The first 10 minutes were the turning point, with the hosts taking a blistering start and quickly leading by six goals. They relied on this advantage for most of the game to cruise away to victory, helping them make an extra step towards a direct ticket to the quarter-finals.
GROUP B
Lomza Vive Kielce (POL) vs HC Motor (UKR) 33:27 (19:13)
- making the most of their opponents’ turnovers, Kielce took the best start in the game, scoring 10 goals in as many minutes to take an early lead
- helped by Nicolas Tournat, who finished best scorer of the game with eight goals, Kielce increased their advantage afterwards, making it six goals at the break
- the hosts were up by nine with 15 minutes left to play, but never managed to extend their advantage to 10
- with this win, Kielce remain leader of group B, four points ahead of Barça, while Motor are still sixth, with eight points
Ten extra minutes of warm-up for Motor
In handball, 10 minutes is a long time. And the players from Motor Zaporozhye learnt it the hard way tonight in Kielce. It took them this long to properly settle into the game, and by then, their opponents were already six goals ahead.
After some turnovers and fast breaks by Dylan Nahi and Alex Dujshebaev, Kielce were already far gone. While the Ukrainian side delivered a good performance during the remaining 50 minutes, their initial handicap was too much for them to overcome.
