HC Erlangen defeats Leipzig after exciting final spell

HC Erlangen captured two very important points on Thursday evening: On the 15th matchday of the DKB German Handball League, the team of Head Coach Aðalsteinn Eyjólfsson celebrated a 24:23 (15:13) victory over SC DHfK Leipzig. The club from Franconia retained the upper hand thanks to its great passion and fighting spirit and rewarded the 3,872 fans in the ARENA with two deserved important points after a thrilling finale.

There was a great sense of anticipation before the home game against Leipzig. And the jubilation after the win was enormous. In its recent away games, HC Erlangen had lost very narrowly to top teams in the league twice in a row. But it finally captured a deserved win on Thursday evening. It was the fiercely contested encounter that both head coaches had anticipated going into the game. The visitors scored the first goal of the evening. German international Philipp Weber gave the HC’s keeper Katsigiannis no chance, hitting the back of the net from the backcourt. One attack later, however, Katsigiannis did a better job and saved the seven-meter penalty from Weber. Playmaker Nico Büdel got the home side off the mark, exploiting the gap after a pass from Steinert to tie the scores at 1:1. Erlangen’s defense was solid and alert. After a steal by Overby, left winger Christopher Bissel finished the fast break to make it 2:1, after which Katsigiannis made another strong save and Sellin put Bissel away again to score without any fuss. HC Erlangen played cleverly in offense and managed to keep on scoring from the backcourt. As a result, Johannes Sellin put his side 6:4 in front in the 11th minute. A little later it was Nico Büdel who, while under time pressure, hurtled the ball at the speed of 109 km/h into the net to restore the two-goal advantage. The club from Saxony adopted the tactic of a seventh field player pretty early on, but Erlangen also had the right antidote to that in defense. After winning possession, pivot Jan Schäffer seized his chance and put the ball in the empty goal to make it 10:7. The visitors took their time over their attacks and came under time pressure with increasing frequency. The upshot was that HC Erlangen took a 15:13 lead in at half-time.

The HC continued its strong form after the break. It began the second half forcefully and went 16:13 ahead after Nikolai Link’s goal. Seven minutes after the restart, Sellin made it 19:16 from the seven-meter line. The visitors fought their way back to 20:18 while short-handed, but HC Erlangen did not give up and continued to fight for every ball. Mappes made it 21:18 and the defense around Petter Overby beavered away tenaciously in the final spell. Things also became extremely heated on court. Both teams did not give each other an inch, but Erlangen retained its focus and kept the visitors at arm’s length, such as in the 52nd minute when it scored through Overby while short-handed (23:20). However, Leipzig was uncompromisingly in attack and so both teams wrestled tightly and intensively for every goal. The HC Erlangen was thwarted by Villadsen twice in the final minutes, which the SC DhfK capitalized on to close the gap to 23:22 with five minutes to go. Co-captain Nikolai Link scored the deciding goal when, with the encounter tied at 23:23 and with his side on the verge of being punished for passive play, he rose above Leipzig’s five-man block to score. HC Erlangen played out the remaining two minutes cleverly and ultimately celebrated a deserved and important 24:23 victory over SC DHfK Leipzig.

“I really have to pay my team a huge compliment today. We kept our cool, even in the heated final spell, and rewarded ourselves with two points after our plucky recent performances,” was how Aðalsteinn Eyjólfsson summed up the game afterwards.

Source: www.hc-erlangen.de