Successful start in the EHF European Cup

TBV celebrates a hands-down win against Podgorica

TBV Lemgo has made a good start in the EHF European Cup with a clear home victory, and can go into the return match against Montenegro with a relaxed attitude.

Tamas Mocsai and his teammates played with confidence to a 46:23 (25:11) win against the overwhelmed visiting team from Montenegro. With its opening line-up of Galia, Kehrmann, Glandorf, Mocsai, Kraus, Strobel and Svavarsson, TBV began like the proverbial firecracker, taking a 4:0 lead within the first 5 minutes. Mocsai, who swapped with Kubes in defence, was first to launch the offensive. Podgorica, with their most celebrated player Zarko Markovic in right-back position, recovered however and was able to turn some of the minor errors made by TBV into points. In the 8th minute, the score was 5:3 for Volker Mudrow's team. Kraus and Svavarsson added to this a short while later, with the visitors acting too sedately in their attack to bring TBV into any serious difficulties; Markovic and Kovalenko were the only players to present any genuine goal threats. When Svavarsson had to leave the field for two minutes, TBV was able to bring the lead up to 12:5 (13th min). Things ran smoothly for TBV that simply had to keep up the pressure. The 14:6 (15th min) by Svavarsson seemed to be the correct response.

In the 17th minute, Holger Glandorf had to take a break after a non-penalised blow to the face and was replaced by Rolf Hermann who went into the right-back position. Following Tamas Mocsais' goal, which brought the score up to 15:6, visiting coach Vuk Roganovic had clearly had enough and played his green card; 17:25 minutes had been played at this point. The game continued as in the previous minutes however; TBV's defence stood before an on-form Martin Galia and the opportunities were consistently used up front. In the 20th minute, Florian Kehrmann increased the score to 17:6 with a counterattack, and Rolf Hermann then helped raise it to a 12-goal lead and a score of 20:8 (24th min) when TBV outnumbered their opponents. For the visitors who had meanwhile dispensed with Markovic, Kovalenko in left-back position was repeatedly left on his own. The TBV express powered on, with Hermann taking the score to 21:8 (26th min). At this point, the game had long been decided. Daniel Kubes relieved Svavarsson at the pivot and Podgorica brought Markovic back in in right-back position, but the visitors had already as well as given up. The teams went into the dressing rooms with a half-time score of 25:11.

In the second half, Carsten Lichtlein came on for Martin Galia in goal, dovetailing seamlessly with his teammates' performance. Mark Schmetz replaced Florian Kehrmann on the right wing. Martin Strobel had already been brought in to replace Michael Kraus in the first half in the left-back; the latter sat out with a bandaged left knee. This did not disrupt TBV's game: Michael Binder scored in the 38th minute to make the score 30:13.

The 2,311 spectators in the Lipperlandhalle were delighted with their team's performance and the atmosphere was accordingly good. In the 43rd minute, HC trainer Roganovic replaced despairing goalie Dragoslav Stoiljkovic with Goran Andeljic, at which point TBV led by 33:15. Volker Mudrow cheerfully tried out various line-ups, including one with Florian Kehrmann in right-back position. The Belorussian referees subsequently caused an uproar in the floundering second half by considering giving Mark Schmetz a time penalty because he ran through the circle by the defence - albeit without even coming close to touching his opponents. Thus TBV was able to refresh its game whilst outnumbered, doing so until Binder made the score 39:19 (51st min).

The 40th goal was scored by Rolf Hermann in the 53rd minute to bring the total to 40:20. The second half then continued in a lively manner, with TBV scoring further goals almost at will and celebrating a more than clear win of 46:23. The victory will probably only be accompanied by the question of how the line-up will look for the major game against the Rhein-Neckar Lions on November 17 with Michael Kraus sitting out.

Comments on the game:

Vuk Roganovic: Congratulations to TBV Lemgo on a well-deserved win. The class differences were clear, with the two teams obviously delivering different levels of play. My team was somewhat shocked how good and how fast TBV played. Speed was decisive in this game. At the end, my team was left standing like basketball players in defence.

Volker Mudrow: It was very important for us to win today. We want to get as far as possible in the EHF European Cup and this means that every game counts. Of course, the opponents were not as strong as one would perhaps expect. We used today's match to run through our game and to play at our own pace. With this, I must single out Martin Strobel in particular today who led well in the second half.