Aalborg showed little sympathy to the Hungarian champions, with a 41:29 victory over a side who find themselves in the middle of a rut.
It is Pick Szeged’s worst start in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League, and they had little chance against the Danish powerhouse, falling to their largest home losses in the competition.
GROUP B
Pick Szeged (HUN) vs Aalborg Håndbold (DEN) 29:41 (15:17)
- for the first time, Pick Szeged start the Machineseeker EHF Champions League with four losses in four games, beating their previous record of three consecutive losses
- Aalborg beat their previous record for the number of goals scored in a single game in the competition by three goals, with the previous best performance being set against HC Motor and HC PPD Zagreb
- the decisive moment of the game was Aalborg’s 7:2 run to start the second half, fuelled by three goals from left wing Sebastian Barthold and two goals from left-back Mikkel Hansen
- with his 10-goal outing, Hansen jumped to the second place in the top goal scorer standings, with 30 goals, three goals behind leader, Celje’s Aleks Vlah
- this was Szeged’s worst home loss since October 2011, when they lost 26:38 loss against THW Kiel, and the first time they have conceded 40 goals on their home court
Szeged set all the negative records
For at least one half, Szeged looked like they could have something to work on, being only two goals down at the break. In the second half, though, everything truly collapsed, with the Hungarian side scoring 14 goals in the second half and conceding 24.
Not only did Szeged concede their largest number of goals in the competition, but they were also unable to weather the storm and, at least, cut the gap in the dying minutes, having equalled their worst home loss in history.
On the other side, Aalborg definitely look like contenders. Mikkel Hansen and Sebastian Barthold delivered 10 goals each, nearly scoring half of their team’s goals.