Handball EHF Champions League – THW Kiel vs FC Porto

The last round (10th) of the Group B of Handball EHF Champions League started with the match between THW Kiel and FC Porto Vitalis with both teams already knowing their destiny in the competition, THW Kiel (qualified to the Last 16) and FC Porto Vitalis (eliminated). THW Kiel didn’t sit back and relax, showing the reason why they had already guaranteed in Group B 1st place before the match start.

With a demolishing start, THW Kiel only allowed FC Porto Vitalis 2nd goal when the clock was already showing 13 minutes, thanks to the extremely inspired Johan Sjostrand and the irons of the goalie doing the rest. The lower offensive and defensive strike expressed by FC Porto Vitalis took Ljubomir Obradovic to ask a time-out in the first 8 minutes of the game to calm down his players and correct mistakes. Nevertheless, FC Porto Vitalis only showed up to the game when the clock already was in the 20 minutes, with Alfredo Bravo (5/16 saves) being the major responsible for the scoring sheet only marked 11-05 to THW Kiel which by the time had already sat in the bench Filip Jicha (3 assistances) and Marko Vujin (4 assistances), maintaining the 6 goal gap until the break (17-11).  During the first half is important to underline Christian Zeitz (3/3 goals and 7 assistances) and Patrick Wienceck (3/3 goals) from THW Kiel. On other side, FC Porto Vitalis, Gilberto Duarte (4 assistances) and João Ferraz (3/5 goals and 4 assistances) revealed a strong manifestation of unconformity with the team’s performance. Subsequent to an untypical first half, FC Porto Vitalis tried to balance the game after halftime seeking to leave a positive team´s representation in the last game of Handball EHF Champions League season 2013/2014. Benefitting from THW Kiel‘s paused game practicing moves in particular 2º pivot position, FC Porto Vitalis took advantage and managed to balance the game driven by the relentless Gilberto Duarte that scored and provided superior assistances to his colleagues. Despite a second-half determined by the preoccupation of performing organized attacks, THW Kiel never shredded the control of the result having the effectiveness of strikers on duty Christian Zeitz (6/9 goals and 12 assistances), Marko Vujin (5/7 goals and 8 assistances ) and Dominik Klein (5/7 goals) even with Filip Jicha (1/1 goals and 5 assistances) most of the time on the bench and with Andreas Palicka (6/21 saves) showing an unusual unfortunate exhibition. Although within a calm game, FC Porto Vitalis never stopped to accumulate mistakes, credit to Hugo Laurentino (7/19 saves) that impeded the result to enlarge having support from Pedro Spínola (5/8 goals), João Ferraz (5/11 goals and 8 assistances) and Gilberto Duarte (5/13 goals and 12 assistances).