First six main round tickets handed over

FROM THE TOP 5 MATCHES:

Group G: Dinamo Bucuresti (ROU) vs Füchse Berlin (GER) 32:33 (17:16)

If your goalkeeper saves 22 shots and you win only by one goal, what does this say about your attack? Füchse Berlin did not care about this stat, but were lucky in the end. All plaudits for the fourth win in the same number of matches go to extraordinary goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev, who had secured the 33:30 win in the first duel last week already. Dinamo were on a fully equal level after shaky first 20 minutes. They were ahead several times and profited from many mistakes by Füchse at both ends of the court. But when you have world class players like Milosavljev and the Danish duo Mathias Gidsel (nine goals) and Lasse Andersson (seven), who combined for almost 50 per cent of the goals, you win a thriller like this.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT …

• with 11 players on the scoreboard, Hanover-Burgdorf’s fourth win, the 34:29 at Athens after an improvement after the break, was definitely a success of the whole team; while the hosts have to struggle hard to make it to the main round, remaining on two points
• Constanta were constantly ahead at Glogow from the 6:5 to the 29:28, but finally gave their first point from their hands. In the last 21 minutes the hosts turned a 19:24 into a 29:29 to gain their first point.
• nine goals by both back court aces Niclas Kirkelokke and Juri Knorr paved the way to the main round berth for Rhein-Neckar, beating Benfica for the second time; the 2022 European League winners from Lisbon stood almost no chance, losing 30:39 and now are close to the elimination.

  𝗝𝗼𝗲𝗹 𝗕𝗶𝗿𝗹𝗲𝗵𝗺 with 17 saves 🫸 at the moment is being outstanding 🌟 #ehfel #elm #allin pic.twitter.com/47zerWNiLP

  — EHF European League (@ehfel_official) November 21, 2023

• thanks to the hard-earned 34:30 win against Izvidac, Chambery Savoie are equal with Dinamo Bucuresti on four points and have their fates still in their hands; on the other hand, the Bosnian side are out of the main round race after their fourth defeat
• RK Nexe easily took their fourth win and booked their main round ticket, the Croatian side was never endangered by Povazska Bystrica, still remaining on zero points and out of the main round race.
• in the same group Skjern’s 31:24 against ABC de Braga propelled them to the next round as Alfred Johnsson pulled the Danish team with the game max (eight goals).
• at 28:22 ahead with 13 minutes to go at Pfadi Winterthur, IK Sävehof left no doubt that they would secure their fourth win and the early main round berth; four Sävehof players scored six times each in the 32:29 away win.
• Kadetten Schaffhausen remain on course for the main round with their third victory, an easy-going 36:26 against now-eliminated Montenegrin side Lovcen-Cetinje; Ariel Pietrasik and Sandro Obranovic each scored times for the Swiss champions. 
• check all the round 4 results here and read the second review for the later matches here

Main image photo: Foto Laechler/ Sylvia Goeres