Vojvodina in the finals, Nexe miss the final tournament

Vojvodina EHFEC

Besides Telekom Veszprem, only one SEHA - Gazprom League club is still part of EHF club competitions.  Vojvodina aim for the trophy in the EHF European Cup after clearly winning the second semi-final against Swedish side Alingsas. In the EHF European League, Nexe lost their second quarter-final against Frisch Auf Goppingen on home ground and will not play their second straight EHF Finals tournament in this competition.

EHF European League

The hurdle was too high for Nexe, as Frisch Auf Goppingen won the quarter-finals by a clear margin of 13 goals in aggregate. The German side, four times winner of the EHF Cup, now will face Granollers (Spain) in the semi-final at Flensburg, while Berlin and Montpellier duel in the second semi.

After losing the first leg 23:32 at Goppingen, coach Branko Tamse and his players knew that they would need a kind of miracle, but it did not happen. Goalkeeper Mihailo Radovanovic was outstanding in the first half, saving seven shots, but still, Nexe were below by 12:13. Right after the break, the Nasice-based side had their strongest period, taking the lead for the first time, but in the end, Goppingen took another victory, winning 31:27. “I regret the first because I don’t think we deserved that kind of defeat, and tonight we wanted to win. The opponents took advantage of every mistake of ours. We had a great desire to enter the EHF Finals but, unfortunately, we did not succeed”, said Tamse. The best Nexe scorers were Janko Kevic with eight goals and Luka Moslavac with six.

EHF European Cup

Vojvodina have made it to the final of the European Cup - and will face defending champions Naerbo IL from Norway (shoot-out winners against their domestic rivals Sandefjord) in the finals on 27/28 May and 3/4 June. After their close 24:25 defeat at Swedish side Alingsas in the first leg of the semi-final the team of head coach Boris Rojevic showed impressive performance on home ground in Novi Sad, winning 32:24 (15:13). Again, goalkeeper Fran Lucin was Vojvodina’s hero by saving 45 per cent of all shots - finally having 11 saves on his tally after 12 in the first leg. The best scorers of the victorious home sides were Milan Milic with eight strikes and Barys Pukhouski, who scored six times.

Vojvodina had a perfect start (5:2, 7:3), before Alingsas improved and levelled the result for the only time at 12:12. Right from the start of the second half, the Rojevic team added a 6:1 run to the 15:13 halftime scored and had decided the match in minute 39 at the score of 21:14. The biggest gap were nine goals at 24:15.