DAY REVIEW: Kiel remain unbeaten after MOTW, Veszprém win big

• THW Kiel showed their best performance of this season, beating Kielce in a high-level MOTW 
• Elias Ellefsen á Skipagøtu, who made his all-time personal best in the Champions League with seven goals, was awarded Player of the Match 
• Veszprém scored 44 goals against Porto, including ten of Nedim Remili, to take their third win 
• Montpellier were extremely lucky to win 31:29 at Celje after a completely equal match, which was decided seven seconds before the end 

GROUP A

MOTW: THW Kiel (GER) vs Industria Kielce (POL) 35:31 (15:16) 

Two Scandinavian young guns and an experience Czech goalkeeper were the keys for Kiel’s fourth win in the same number of group matches. Kielce were a tough nut to crack for 50 minutes, but when Tomas Mrkva clearly won the goalkeeper duel against Milosz Walach in the crunch time, the hosts took their fifth victory in the 15^th duel against Talant Dujshebaev’s side, which was clearly missing the magic of injured Andreas Wolff between the goal bars. Faroese top talent Elias Ellefsen á Skipagøtu and young Swedish shooter Eric Johansson were Kiel’s engines in attack and netted seven goals each. Despite missing team captain Alex Dujshebaev, the visitors were the stronger team in the first half, but they never were ahead after the break. 

GROUP B

Telekom Veszprém HC (HUN) vs FC Porto (POR) 44:34 (22:16) 

With 10 goals Nedim Remili was Veszprém's hero in the match, which was quite levelled until the 25th minute (16:15), but then the goal-hungry hosts pulled ahead with a 5:1 run for the clear half-time lead. After 30 minutes, French right back had already seven strikes on his tally. In the first ten minutes of the second half, Porto were simply overrun by the speed and energy of Veszprém. Who else then Remili could have secured the first double-figured margin at 30:20. Even when all was decided, Veszprém did not stop running and scoring – and became the first team of this season to score more than 40 goals in a single match. They almost broke their all-time goal record in this competition (47:32 against Dinamo Bucuresti in 2021). Thanks to their third win, the hosts are equal with Barça and GOG, who duel in the top clash on Thursday, Porto remain on four points.  

RK Celje Pivovarna Laško (SLO) vs Montpellier HB (FRA) 29:31 (17:17)

For the third time in four group matches, Celje were defeated in an unlucky close way. Like at the 36:38 loss at GOG and the 29:30 setback against Plock, the Slovenian record champions were close to their first point, but they left empty-handed again. On the other hand, Montpellier took their second consecutive two-goal win. Their victory at Celje was only decided seven seconds before the end, when Kyllian Villeminot scored the match winner. The biggest gap in the whole match was three goals – twice before the break in favour of Celje, once in the second half for Montpellier, the lead changed seven times. Despite 16 saves of Rok Zaponsek, the “Brewers” still wait for their first point, while Montpellier took their second straight victory, backed by ten goals of Bryan Monte. 

Photo: Roland Peka (Veszprém), Slavko Kolar (Celje), Sascha Klahn (Kiel)