Sunday’s EHF Champions League previews …
After some exciting matches including two draws the latest batch of Champions League fixtures ends today. Below are previews and links to Sunday’s matches. All being well a full review of this round will appear tomorrow morning. Please correct any errors in the comments.
Group B: THW Kiel v IK Savehof (3.15pm UK, live stream)
Kiel will win.
Group C: Bjerringbro-Silkeborg v Chambery (4pm UK, live stream)
Two teams who lost their opening matches. The Danes were late entrants to the Champions League, taking the place that had been allotted to AG Copenhagen, who they now (in resurrected form) trail in the Danish league having blown their own 100% domestic record last time out. In France, Chambery are unbeaten and are broadly keeping pace with Paris so it was something of a surprise that they lost at home to Metalurg in the Champions League. I’m backing the French team to win today.
Group A: RK Partizan v SG Flensburg-Handewitt (6pm UK, live stream)
Flensburg shared 74 goals with Montpellier in the opening round of fixtures with the match ending in a tie. If they share 74 goals today it’ll only because they’ve won 54:20. Their only enemy is surely cockiness. Partizan lost by 7 to Medvedi last week and lost nine times out of ten last year. The earth would tilt slightly off its axis if they did anything other than lose again today.
Group A: Montpellier v Reale Ademar Leon (6pm UK, live stream)
Match of the day as the embattled Montpellierians take on the Spanish dark horses. With the scandal breaking around them Montpellier drew with Flensburg but the next time out in the French League they lost to Toulouse which is something that just doesn’t happen. With this group becoming so tight – 5 of the 6 will be legitimately after the 4 places – they can’t afford to slip up in their home matches. I can’t really call this one.
Montpelliers’ nightmare season continues, can it get any worse for them? Their second Champions League defeat in a week, this time to HSV Hamburg, leaves them bottom of Group A. Yet again they were unable to call on the Karabatic brothers who remain benched due to match-fixing allegations.