Costa brothers secure Sporting’s draw

LAST 16: 

Sporting CP (POR) vs SC Magdeburg (GER) 29:29 (16:13) 

• 19-year-old left back Martim Costa was Sporting’s hero in the first half, scoring seven of their 16 goals - three times before the break, the hosts were ahead by three goals 
• Magdeburg improved mainly in the defence and managed to stop the older Costa brother, but then 17-year-old Francisco Costa found the gaps - and he had eight strikes on his tally in total, like Martim 
• as the defending champions defended much more efficiently and their regular top scorer Omar Ingi Magnusson heated up in the middle of the second half to finish with eight goals, they took their first lead at 20:19 
• but nothing was decided in this thriller, the biggest gap after the 17:15 advantage in minute 33 was one goal, and the lead changed several times in the last minutes 
• after a final time-out of their coach Ricardo Costa 30 seconds before the end, Martim Costa missed the last chance before the final buzzer 

Magdeburg close to repeat history 

SC Magdeburg had not lost any of their last 24 EHF European League/EHF Cup matches - including tonight. The last defeat was a 29:30 on 24 November 2020 at Swedish side Alingsas, followed by 13 wins including the final in the 2020/21 season. In the 2021/22 group phase, Magdeburg took nine victories and tied once. But the defending champions had a bad omen to play at Portugal - as in the 2018/19 season, they were eliminated in the qualification process, after a 27:34 defeat at Porto. In the end, history did not repeat for lucky SCM.