First Magdeburg win on Barça ground; Veszprém open account

After Plock on Wednesday night, Magdeburg, Sporting and Füchse each took their second wins in the same number of matches. PSG were close to stumbling against Eurofarm Pelister on home ground, but came away with the victory.

• the 15th save from Hernandez earnt SC Magdeburg their first victory ever at Barcelona; the Spaniard stopped a post-buzzer penalty from Ian Barrufet to secure a 22:21 win
• 2024/25 semi-finalists HBC Nantes still wait for their first points after a 30:25 defeat at Veszprém, beaten by 14 goals from French duo Hugo Descat and Nedim Remili
• the fans in Lisbon saw an incredible number of goals — 78, as Sporting defeated Kielce 41:37 in a match with almost no defence, led by a combined 18 goals from Francisco Costa and Salvador Salvador
• like Sporting, Füchse Berlin took their second victory, 31:28, beating Aalborg for the third time within four months, backed by goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev
• a 7:0 run in the last nine minutes and 11 goals from Elohim Prandi prevented PSG from a home defeat against Eurofarm Pelister, as the French side took a 33:27 win

GROUP A

Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR) vs Industria Kielce (POL) 41:37 (20:15)

H2H: 1-0-0
Top scorers: Francisco Costa 9/10, Salvador Salvador 9/10 (Sporting Clube de Portugal), Szymon Sicko (Industria Kielce), 8/13 Industria Kielce

Boosted by their dominant 37:28 win against Kolstad last week, Kielce started full of confidence and efficiency in the first duel ever between the clubs. But this strong period only lasted until the score of 11:11 in minute 17, when Sporting pulled ahead easily, as neither of Kielce’s goalkeepers had an impact after their outstanding performance against Kolstad in round 1. Within nine minutes Sporting scored a 7:1 run, backed by a strong performance from playmaker Salvador Salvador, who scored five of his nine goals before the break. The five-goal advantage for the hosts after 30 minutes was well-deserved, thanks to a better defence and higher efficiency in attack. Nothing changed after the break, though Kielce improved in attack — in a match where neither team seemed to care about defending. When Kielce’s leading scorer Artsem Karalek was sent off with a red card in minute 43, the visitors lost an important option. On the other hand, Francisco Costa, in a match without his brother and key Sporting attacker Martim, was the top scorer, alongside Salvador, with nine strikes. The goal fest was decided when Salvador scored his last goal for 39:33.

Füchse Berlin (GER) vs Aalborg Håndbold (DEN) 31:28 (17:13)

H2H: 4-0-1
Top scorers: Mathias Gidsel 8/9 (Füchse Berlin), Thomas Arnoldsen 5/12, Simon Hald 5/5 (Aalborg Håndbold)

Both sides started their season with victories against top-level opponents — Berlin against Nantes, Aalborg against Veszprém —  but in the first 50 minutes, there was only one dominant side: Füchse. As Dejan Milosavljev (10 saves) clearly won the goalkeeper duel against Fabian Norsten and Niklas Landin, his side grabbed the chance to forge ahead to 15:10. Compared to previous matches, it was no solo outing for current IHF World Player of the Year Mathias Gidsel in the first half, as eight different Füchse players were already on the score board at the break. With Milosavljev still on fire and Tim Freihöfer cold as ice from the penalty line, Berlin were in full control in the second half, extending the gap to 28:21. The “Foxes’” defence was extremely well adapted to the current Danish champions and Lasse Ludwig saved two consecutive penalties. But when they changed to seven-against-six in attack, Aalborg put Berlin under pressure and reduced the gap to only 26:29, before who else but Gidsel decided the match with the score for 30:26. Losing by three in the end, Aalborg missed the chance to take revenge for the two defeats in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25 quarter-finals.

One Veszprém HC (HUN) vs HBC Nantes (FRA) 30:25 (17:15)

H2H: 3-0-1
Top scorers: Hugo Descat 8/10 (One Veszprém HC), Noam Leopold 5/7 (HBC Nantes)

Two Spanish goalkeepers imprinted the match: Veszprém’s Rodrigo Corrales was on 44 percent at the break and ultimately saved 18 shots, while Nantes’ Ignacio Biosca denied an earlier decision with 13 saves. Both teams had lost their openers, so there was a certain pressure — even more on the hosts. But Veszprém were constantly ahead from the score of 3:2, intermediately by three goals, but mostly with a gap of one or two until the break. It was mainly top scorer Hugo Descat (eight goals) and his French compatriot Nedim Remili who took the responsibility right after the restart, scoring for Veszprém’s first six-goal advantage at 24:18 in minute 47. When Gasper Marguc netted for 28:21, all Nantes’ hopes came to an end. The top scorer for HBC was Swiss wing Noam Leopold with five goals.

GROUP B

MOTW: Barça (ESP) vs SC Magdeburg (GER) 21:22 (12:15)

H2H: 6-0-6
Top scorers: Aleix Gómez 7/8 (Barça), Ómar Ingi Magnusson 6/10 (SC Magdeburg)
POTM: Sergey Hernandez (SC Magdeburg)

Like in the 2023 and 2025 EHF Champions League semi-finals, SC Magdeburg finished victorious against Barça — but on Thursday night for the first time ever, the German side won an away match in Palau Blaugrana. SCM’s hero was a Spaniard: Goalkeeper and Player of the Match Sergey Hernadez, who saved 15 shots, including a penalty off Ian Barrufet with the final buzzer to secure the close win.

The defending title holders profited from a strong start from Hernandez, who was on eight saves at the break. Barça’s defence had big problems stopping the Icelanders Gisli Kristjansson and Ómar Ingi Magnusson. Both sides had to replace key players due to injuries: Dika Mem was missing for Barça, Magnus Saugstrup from Magdeburg — and SCM compensated this loss in a better way. Failing too often against Hernandez and Magdeburg’s strong defence, the hosts only led once in the whole match at 4:3, while Magdeburg’s biggest advantage was four goals at 13:9. It was only in the final minutes of the first half that Barça goalkeeper Emil Nielsen (13 saves) became a factor. But by improving in attack, Barça reduced the gap to 15:14 right after the break and started to play with a different attitude in defence, allowing Magdeburg only one goal in the first 10 minutes. In general, the second half was poor of goals — 16 in 30 minutes. Until the end, the match was on the edge, but without the speed both sides regularly show. Barça levelled the result at 21:21, then Magdeburg took the lead and had the chance to decide the match, and new Barça keeper Viktor Hallgrímsson saved the penalty against his compatriot Magnusson. When Barrufet missed the penalty to level the game after the buzzer, SCM took both points.

Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) vs HC Eurofarm Pelister (MKD) 33:27 (16:16)

H2H: 6-0-1
Top scorers: Elohim Prandi 11/16 (Paris Saint-Germain), Dejan Manaskov 5/6 (HC Eurofarm Pelister)

It was 15 December 2001 when Pelister beat Paris Saint-German for the first and only time in an official match — a 29:26 win in the Last 16 of the Challenge Cup. Almost 24 years later, Eurofarm Pelister were close to a historic victory in the French capital after winning the Balkan derby against Zagreb last week for the first time.

The first 22 minutes were business as usual for the hosts, who were chanceless in their opener at Magdeburg last week. Backed by the shooting power of match top scorer Elohim Prandi, Paris were ahead 15:10. But then everything changed. The current Macedonian champions stopped PSG’s rhythm with an incredibly strong defence, while the hosts lacked ideas to break through. Within 16 minutes, the visitors turned the match around with an 11:3 run, to lead 21:18. Even Pelister goalkeeper Nikola Mitrevski put his name on the scorer list. But the change of goalkeepers from Jannick Green to Stanis Soullier was something like a wake-up call for PSG. Finally, a 7:0 run from trailing 27:26 to the final result of 33:27 prevented PSG from a second defeat, as the visitors did not score any goals in the last nine minutes.