This external link is not available in presentation mode.

To the top
Menu

Nuremberg

HC Erlangen loses to Frisch Auf! Göppingen by 24:25

Nuremberg, 09-08-2018

HC Erlangen suffered a narrow defeat at the hands of FRISCH AUF! Göppingen after a fiercely contested game on Saturday evening. With a strongly improved performance in defense and unbridled desire, HC Erlangen put up a great fight against the four-times winner of the EHF CUP. In the end, the visitors from Göppingen won by a wafer-thin margin with a goal in the final second.

Ten time penalties, four yellow cards and three red ones – that is the balance from HC Erlangen’s second home game. Right from the throw-off, the 3,377 spectators in the ARENA NÜRNBERGER Versicherung saw an evenly matched and hard-fought encounter. Neither team was able to open up a gap to begin with. Zelenovic put FRISCH AUF! Göppingen ahead, but Christoph Steinert did not hesitate long and scored the equalizer (1:1). The lead kept on changing hands up to the 13th minute. Playmaker Dominik Mappes directed his team cleverly and repeatedly managed to set up his teammates. Göppingen’s Sliskovic saw the red card in the 13th minute after a foul on Nikolai Link. The Swabian club’s number 19 grabbed Link by the throwing arm on a fast break, which the referees penalized with a sending-off. HC Erlangen then turned on the heat, opening up a 9:6 gap by the 20th minute through goals by Mappes, Sellin and Schäffer. Despite the outstanding display by Nikolas Katsigiannis in goal, however, Göppingen fought its way back. The fans in the ARENA NÜRNBERGER Versicherung saw an exciting and evenly poised first half in which the visitors ended up with a slight lead. Both teams went in at the break with the score 11:13.

The second half did not start as Erlangen would have wanted. Petter Overby was given his third two-minute penalty and so also the red card after fouling Heymann in the 31st minute. However, the club from Franconia side was only short-handed for 30 seconds, as Heymann also had to sit out a two-minute penalty for a foul on Thümmler. Steinert then scored a seven-meter penalty and Schäffer cut the deficit to 13:15. Marcel Schiller’s seven-meter penalty hit the bar and Thümmler pulled another goal back for the HC in the second wave of attack (14:15). After Christopher Bissel captured possession, the opposing side’s goalkeeper Prost produced a splendid display, parrying two shots in quick succession, which gave Göppingen the ball back and led to the moment that perhaps decided the encounter. Jan Schäffer was likewise shown the red card after a foul on Rentschler and his team was without him from the 38th minute on. Shortly after that, Christopher Bissel reduced the gap to 15:17 after a fast break. Fired on by the fans in the arena, Nikolai Link fired the ball past goalkeeper Prost from the backcourt and then tied the scores at 18:18 after a Kempa trick. After that, HC Erlangen had several chances to take the lead, but was repeatedly thwarted by a Primoz Prost in fine form. With his team trailing by two goals, the HC’s Head Coach Aðalsteinn Eyjólfsson played the green card to give his players a pep talk for crunch time. After trailing 21:23 and then tying the scores at 23:23, the HC again established a good position going into the last two minutes. Bagersted scored from the crease and Nicolai Theilinger leveled the encounter at 24:24 with 16 seconds left. HC Erlangen was just three seconds away from winning a point, but Zelenovic, who finished up with seven goals, made short shrift, powering his way through Erlangen’s defense to make the final score 24:25.

“I’m very proud of my team today. We fought to the very end and compensated well for losing Overby and Schäffer. Unfortunately, we weren’t rewarded for our fighting spirit in the end and missed too many chances to score,” said Aðalsteinn Eyjólfsson after the game.