TBV reaches the 1/2 Final of the EHF Cup

Narrow defeat in Aragon is enough for TBV

After a strong start phase, TBV lagged far behind, but fought its way back and kept its nerve.

TBV began with the following line-up in the Pabellón Principe Felipe: Martin Galia, Jens Bechtloff, Michael Kraus, Martin Strobel, Holger Glandorf, Mark Schmetz and Sebastian Preiß. Ferenc Ilyés and Daniel Kubes came on for Kraus and Strobel in defence, as is almost always the case. The hosts were first to score, and Glandorf countered with a nice throw into the top right-hand corner of the goal in the 2nd minute (1:1). TBV was on the ball from the start, playing with great concentration and not allowing itself to be distracted by the noisy spectators. Kraus’ 4:2 in the 5th minute was a just reward for this sound opening phase. Aragon struggled against TBV’s defence, but remained focussed, scoring in the 7th minute to secure the 5:5 equaliser.

In the 9th minute, Stankovic then got the 5:6 in whilst Preiß was sitting out a time penalty, but TBV remained calm, focussed on playing to the game plan and regained the lead in the 11th minute (7:6). The game went back and forth; Aragon forged ahead again to make it 7:8, but this was soon evened out by Kraus in a solo offensive. Volker Mudrow brought Florian Kehrmann on for Schmetz in the 15th minute, and just one minute later, luck and skill led to the 10:10. The flow of the game in the first few minutes was all but gone however and TBV relied on solo attempts, such as Strobel’s nice hip throw, to boost the score to 11:11 when a passive warning was called. Galia saved what was already the third penalty throw against Stojanovic, but discipline was lacking in the offensive and Aragon powered to its first two-goal lead in the 21st minute (11:13).

The first critical phase then followed: the French referees missed a nasty elbow check against Preiß, an opening Aragon used to boost its score to 14:11 (22nd min.). TBV then just had to stay with it, and Mudrow brought Hermann on for Glandorf, whilst Svavarsson came on for Preiß who had to receive treatment. Yet things didn’t even go smoothly when TBV outnumbered its hosts, and Aragon increased its lead even further to 11:15. When the score reached 13:18 in the 27th minute, the point advantage going into the game had almost been squandered, and Mudrow called his time-out after 26:36 minutes. An improvement was not initially in sight however. Lichtlein was to thank for Aragon not gaining a six-goal lead when he saved a counterattack from Stojanovic in the 30th minute, amongst others. Ilyés then followed up with a goal for TBV to make it 14:18. In the second half, a cool head was required in this volatile atmosphere.

Mudrow began the second half with Glandorf again; Preiß was also able to return to play. Ilyés took the left-back position whilst Kraus had a break. TBV fought hard, but continued to make a great many errors. Glandorf subsequently increased the score to 16:19, the defence was back on better form, Ilyés netted the 17:19 (36th min.) – and TBV was back in play. All of a sudden, the next critical phase was upon TBV however: Strobel had to leave the court for two minutes in the 39th minute (19:22) after throwing the ball away after the whistle had been blown. A nice steal from Kubes and a counterattack then brought TBV back up to 20:22 though. Lichtlein made another fantastic save and Ilyés took advantage of a goal opportunity to make it 22:23 in the 43rd minute. Less than one minute later, Grebenar got a goal in for Aragon however, leaving TBV three goals down again (22:25). Preiß was then slapped with the next time penalty, an opportunity Aragon took advantage of to net the 22:26 (46th min.).The hall descended into uproar again with the 23:28 (48th min.): Kraus switched from the offensive to take over from Strobel in the centre position. His 24:28 that very same minute was immensely important, as was Svavarsson’s 25:28 one minute later when passive play threatened once more.

This was followed by the next time penalty, again against TBV. Svavarsson had to leave the court, but Carton missed with a lob from the outside right and Bechtloff then broke away with a counterattack and kept his nerve to make it 26:28 (51st min.). The game certainly wasn’t for the faint-hearted: Carton missed a penalty throw against Lichtlein, leaving the score at 26:29. Yet another time penalty for TBV followed – this time for Ilyés. Lichtlein made a great save to prevent the Spaniards’ 30th goal, at which point less than seven minute of play remained. During a penalty throw, Kraus had the power in his hands to decide a preliminary outcome for the game. He didn’t leave Malumbres a chance and the 27:29 (55th min.) forced Ortega to call his time-out at which point 54:53 minutes had been played.

The same little game followed as in the previous minutes: another time penalty from the completely overwhelmed referees and Ilyés had to leave the court again – an exasperating situation. Carton brought Aragon into the lead with 27:30; the latter then put two forward-positioned players in defence. The referee’s arm rocketed skyward again surprisingly quickly: Carton scored again to make the score 27:31 (57th min.). After the next technical error, Lichtlein then saved a throw from the entirely free Casanova, whilst Glandorf’s goal (28:31) hushed the hall’s spectators in an instant, and Lichtlein’s save proved the deciding factor.

Nothing more happened in the final seconds of play until Mudrow called his second time-out in the 59:09 minute. The spectators were in uproar, as were the Spaniards, TBV’s qualification for the next round was ensured, only Carton and Lamadrid let loose against Bechtloff who had to leave the court for two minutes. Confusion then also reigned among the judges, with a score of 30:32 for Aragon first appearing on the scoreboard, then 31:32, whereby all of the attending journalists had 30:31 on their statistics sheets. The official stats confirm a score of 31:32 for Aragon: TBV’s goal too many was attributed to Jens Bechtloff who claims – of his own accord – to definitely only have scored two goals, the additional goal for the Spaniards is to no longer be verified.