A draw in Podgorica is enough to go through

TBV progress to the last sixteen in the EHF Cup

TBV Lemgo have made it to the last sixteen of the EHF Cup. At HC Buducnost Podgorica, the team from Montenegro, TBV drew 28:28 (13:15) and after the 46:23 victory in the home leg, are in the next round of the competition.

TBV had set off for the Montenegran capital without Holger Glandorf, Sebastian Preiß, Michael Kraus, Ferenc Ilyés, Jens Bechtloff and Logi Geirsson and, despite these personnel problems and the danger of taking things for granted after the 46:23 win in the first leg, were the clear favourites against Podogorica. The "Buducnost" in the hosts' name means "hope" and this was the basis for Podogorica's performance, which never allowed Lemgo to get into their stride and meant that the game was evenly matched. Lemgo began with Martin Galia in goal, the wings were Michael Binder and Florian Kehrmann; in defence, Martin Strobel was in the centre and Rolf Hermann and Daniel Kubés were the half-backs. Kubés at left back was one of the experiments that trainer Volker Mudrow was trying out. Vignir Svavarsson was pivot at first. With his fourth goal as early as the 8th minute, Hermann, who seemed to be steering TBV to an easy victory again, took them into a 6:3 lead.

But from the middle of the first half, TBV were too careless, the hosts accepted the chance gratefully and moved slightly ahead of the visitors. However, at 11:13, trainer Volker Mudrow took his time-out; his team were playing too loosely and gave Podgorica the chance to take a two-goal lead. But not much changed at first, TBV generously gave the home team a lot of space, which they gladly accepted. At 12:15, Podgorica were three goals up for the first time. At least Kehrmann scored to take it to 13:15 and that was the score that the sides took into the changing room.

In the second half, Carsten Lichtlein came on for Martin Galia between the posts and immediately began well with a penalty save. The defence was a bit more consistent than in the first period, too, and this had an effect: when Daniel Kubes scored to take it to 16:15, TBV were back in the lead. At 18:16, TBV then went into a two goal lead for the first time. It was still not the great performance of the first leg, but at least TBV now had the game under control again and just did enough, following the axiom that a good horse only jumps as high as it needs to. A good 42 minutes had gone, TBV led 20:18. Having to defend meant that Podgorica were hardly able to open up at all, just three goals up to this point spoke volumes. A short time later, TBV were three goals ahead and the game was heading towards a quiet conclusion.

And that's exactly how things continued, with Rolf Hermann scoring in the 51st minute to take it to 26:22. But then the visitors fell back into their old ways and Podgorica brought the score back to 27:25 (55th). Four minutes before the end of the game, Volker Mudrow took another time-out, his team were making too many mistakes again and were lucky that Podgorica had thrown away the chance to draw level. But Podgorica got another chance, which was more than they could have hoped for; the score was 28:27 to TBV. HC coach Vuk Roganovic then called another time out for his team. And the trick worked, Zarko Markovic scored for the hosts, bringing the scores level amid great celebration.