Men Handball: Szeged Lifts The Trophy In EHF Cup
The 29-28 win against French Montpellier is historic for the Hungarian team as it is the first time it won an international cup. The road towards the final success was tough but Szeged reached it confidently and deservedly.
It is obvious at the first glance that Szeged marched on in the tournament with huge confidence. The Hungarian side lost only one game in the group stage and advanced from the quarter finals with a double win against Sporting CP. The opponent in the final four was the hosting team Füchse Berlin, but even the German was unable to stop Szeged (22-24). Until the final, Szeged dominated the matches, was almost always in the lead. This did not change in the match against Montpellier.
The final started with a Hungarian lead but after two men penalties the French side took the lead, however, Szeged was incredibly dangerous in those situations, hence Montpellier could not get away. The teams stayed even until the half of the first half, when Ilyés and Larholm shot the team ahead by two goals. The game did not change much afterwards, although Montpellier almost equalized but Mikler always saved in the most important moments. Ancsin scored one before the break, the score was 16-14 for Szeged.
The French goalkeepers were in terrible form, Canyer tried to substitute them often but the plan did not work out. Szeged increased the advantage further. The Hungarian tam dominated the following minutes, but at the end the French players collected themselves and tried to turn the score around. Two huge mistakes of substitutes and the resulting double men penalty gave them the opportunity to do so. However, Szeged scored a goal with two men down and that basically concluded the match as they stayed ahead. Nevertheless, in the last minute the French side was only one goal down following the two goals of Gajic, but Larholm finished a penalty in the end, so a late French goal did not change anything.
In the aftermath, the Hungarian keeper was selected as the best goalkeeper of the final four. The best player became Iker romero from Montpellier while the top scorer Gajic (also Montpellier).
by Oliver Tamasi
Photo: eurohandball.com
Source: http://dailynewshungary.com/
