EHF CL TOP scorer, Momir Ilic: It's about who wants it the most | Handball Planet
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EHF CL TOP scorer, Momir Ilic: It’s about who wants it the most

Momir Ilic

THW Kiel is the first finalist of the VELUX EHF FINAL4, defeating Hungarian top-flight 29:26 (13:13). The match between the debutant and a two-time champion was way more than that, looking at the team sheets. In the experienced MKB-MVM Veszprem side it was Ilić facing his former team, and a place of his greatest success, with a lot to prove. The Zebras are a team that had never lost a final in Cologne lifting the trophy on two occasions in 2010 and 2012. THW Kiel will now be playing their seventh EHF Champions League final (second in Cologne), facing a wonderful prospect of lifting the sought-after trophy fourth time in their history.

The Serbian shoot-out

Veszprem star Momir Ilić went from strength to strength against his former team, orchestrating his team’s offensive and defensive actions; while scoring 5 goals to climb atop the VELUX EHF Champions League scoring chart with staggering 96 goals. Serbian sharpshooter will have to console with a chance of winning the top scorer’s trophy, albeit missing out on the main prize- the VELUX EHF FINAl4 trophy he had proudly lifted back in 2012. Another Serbian top-talent, Marko Vujin didn’t have the best of games scoring only two goals; but a textbook shooting performance from another THW Kiel starlet left the fans purring in sold-out LANXESS Arena- Aron Palmarson scored seven goals, as the Icelandic left back was ruthless in decisive moments of the match.

In an equally contested first half, which ended 13:13, the two excellent goalkeepers took the stage. Andreas Palicka turned put out his A-game today for THW Kiel, collecting 12 saves. On the other side it was Mirko Alilović’s heroics in goal that made the world of difference for MKB-MVM Veszpremup until the very end. The Croat looked unbeatable at times, but his efforts often failed to capitalize in the attack due to technical errors committed by the Hungarian side.

“We played a great first half-time, but the rest of the game we played in a hurry and that kind of broke us down.

“We knew we should be more careful of their fast-breaks, if we let that happen, it solves the game. And that’s what happened. They played “smarter”, waiting for us to make mistakes and beat us like that”, said the Croatian goalkeeper.

It’s about who wants it the most

THW Kiel didn’t revel in misfortune of last season’s failure (finishing 4th after loosing both matches), as the Zebras show the importance of depth and tactical discipline to upstage MKB-MVM Veszprem, who held their own until very late in the match.

The match wore-out even the toughest admitted by one of the heroes of the game, THW Kiel goalkeeper Andreas Palicka.

“We will do everything to have our bodies 100% ready for tomorrow.

“Our physiotherapists will have a lot of work tonight.

The match saw Veszprem line-player Renato Sulić face the ignominy of a red card, for what was perceived to be a deliberate elbow in the face of Partick Wiencek.

“I just noticed that he comes elbow first. After that I was gone for a moment, it wasn’t that bad but he struck me fully. And I don’t think that was coincidence,” said Wiencek about the incident.

It took 56 minutes for the Bundesliga powerhouse to finally break the hard fighting MKB-MVM Veszprem. It was the exhaustion suffered by the key players- Nagy and Ilić that kicked in late in the match. The hard-working backs looked short of breath in the end to put Kiel’s defence to the sword in the dying minutes.

“It’s not an excuse, but it seems like we didn’t have enough strength to keep up the first halftime”, said Ilić.

“In defence we were strong, but didn’t play smart, we lost a lot of balls, and when you play like that against Kiel, it always ends bad”

“You could see that we didn’t have a real match for three weeks, our reactions in defence were way too slow”, stated the competition top-scorer, of his concerns over his team’s performance.

The Hungarian champions will now face the Spanish giants FC Barcelona in the 3rd placement match, while the winner on the 2014 VELUX EHF FINAL4 will be decided in a north-German derby between THW Kiel and SG Flensburg.

TEXT: NEMANJA SAVIC

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