Fivers lose but still make it through

Toulouse and Fivers played for the last available Last 16 ticket in the EHF European League Men on Tuesday.

With two more points and a five-goal win in the first leg (37:32), the team from Austria looked in the most comfortable position ahead of the game. Toulouse needed a six-goal victory to progress, and ultimately fell short by two goals.

GROUP A
Fenix Toulouse HB (FRA) vs Fivers (AUT) 29:25 (16:16)

• Toulouse started the game on fire, leading by four after 13 minutes, thanks to goals from Henrik Jakobsen and Nemanja Ilic
• Fivers held their nerve and levelled the score a couple of minutes before the break siren.
• Toulouse again took the upper hand in the second half, taking a five-goal lead seven minutes before the end of the game
• Lukas Hutecek and Nikola Stevanovic kept their heads cool in the last five minutes to score important goals that would see the Austrian club progress
• having won the first leg between the two teams by five goals, Fivers qualify for the Last 16 despite their 25:29 loss, and Toulouse are out of the European League

Toulouse, almost there

There is no nice way to be eliminated from a European competition. Toulouse virtually had their ticket in hand at the 53rd minute, when Nemanja Ilic scored his sixth personal goal to put the hosts ahead by five goals.

But Edouard Kempf and Ayoub Abdi missed the following shots, which could have propelled the French side to the Last 16, leaving Toulouse to regret what might have been.