First victory for Presov in almost five months

GROUP A: 

Pfadi Winterthur (SUI) vs. TATRAN Presov (SVK) 27:31 (12:14) 

• Presov finish on four points, while Pfadi’s only victory in the group phase remains the 33:29 at Presov in the reverse fixture 
• a perfect start of Sergio Lopez Garcia provided the visitors with a clear 8:3 advantage before a time-out of Pfadi coach Goran Cvetkovic woke up the Swiss champions 
• 19-year-old Noam Leupold steered Winterthur to a great comeback, his third of eight goals was the equalizer for 9:9, and his strike to make it 12:11 was Winterthur’s first lead 
• from that moment on, the match was a thriller, as Presov could not keep their three-goal lead from right after the break, but Pfadi’s last lead was 21:20 
• a 5:1 run in the last five minutes from 26:26 to 31:27 finally decided the match, in which Oliver Rabek was Presov’s best scorer by eight goals 

Season-high for Georgian talent 

Giorgi Tskhovrebadze is the biggest talent in Georgian handball. He was discovered by the scouts of Montpellier Handball as a youth player at 16. Two years later, he was part of Montpellier’s squad in the French League and in the EHF Champions League. After three seasons, both sides had found out that his development would accelerate if Tskhovrebadze gets more playing time somewhere, that place being Winterthur. In four European League matches he had scored 16 goals, including six against two-time EHF Cup winners Füchse. In the final group match, Tskhovrebadze was on fire and scored his season-high seven goals.