In the second leg of the Last 8 of the Champions League Vive Tauron Kielce beat at home Vardar Skopje 33:31. Having a 2-goal advantage from the first leg, it is the Polish team that has qualified to the Final 4. The Polish champions, despite being only on a considerable lead, seemed to have the game under control, just to almost lost it in the last minutes. First minutes were very tight; it took Kielce 11 minutes to gain a 2-goal advantage (7:5). However, it was just a nice beginning because Poles got themselves into trouble – Vardar came from behind (8:8) and was about to play in a double powerplay. The referees sent Jurecki off the court for two minutes and a moment later he was followed by Zorman. To everybody’s surprise, by the time Zorman came back, Kielce scored 3 goals while losing none and it was 11:8 in the 21. minute. But Vardar didn’t let Kielce incease the distance and got close to 1 goal but in the end the hosts left the court leading 16:14. Vardar opened the second half by playing in a powerplay as Jurecki got sent off again.
They got closer again, but Kielce’s goalkeeper started working a little bit better. The first half was quite poor for goalkeepers at the both sides of the court. Šterbik was soon replaced by Milić and Szmal replaced Šego in the second half. Szmal began very well as he saved Dibirov’s penalty throw. The game got very tight again; with 10 minutes to go, Vardar was on a good way to turn the tables but they wasted all their chances to get the lead. In the meantime Kielce got back on their track; when in 59. minute Zorman scored for 32:30 and Alex Duyshebaev threw the ball over the bar, the deal seemed to be sealed. However, the pressure itself must have been strong because some players and staff got into a “hot debate”. In effect Jurecki got his third suspension and a red card but it didn’t change the final result.
MARTYNA USNARSKA
