Kielce remain Barça’s closest rivals

GROUP B

Lomza Industria Kielce (POL) vs Elverum Handball (NOR) 37:33 (21:17)

• Kielce were never behind in the whole match – and their 5:2 and 10:6 start increased their confidence rapidly
• Elverum finally started their engines in the middle of the first half to get closer goal by goal, but could not reduce the gap to less than three goals
• Belarusian line player Artsem Karalek (10 goals in total) and Icelandic centre back Haukur Thrastarson (six goals) were the keys to securing Kielce’s victory
• when Tobias Grøndahl netted the visitors’ 28th goal in the 37th minute at 31:28, Elverum could hope for a draw, but they missed two consecutive chances and Kielce decided the match with a double strike by Karalek and Benoit Konkoud for the 33:28
• Uros Borzas was Elverum’s top scorer with six strikes

Kielce’s perfect scoring line

In previous years, Alex Dujshebaev was only known as a top scorer, but in the recent season, his role has changed to become also a kind of playmaker from the right back position. In combination with Haukur Thrastarson he was superb in bringing line player Artsem Karalek to the perfect position to score in the match against Elverum.

Kielce are much harder to defend against now. Polish internationals Szymon Sicko and Arkadiusz Moryto are their best scorers for the season, but as Elverum tried to stop them, Kielce created the space for different attackers.