Alkaloid close to historic trophy; Athens need comeback

FINAL, SECOND LEG

HC Alkaloid (MKD) vs AEK Athens HC (GRE) — first leg 29:25
Sunday 24 May, 20:30 CEST, live on EHFTV

• AEK Athens HC trail after the first leg for the first time this season; they had won the first leg of all five rounds before the final’s first leg
• HC Alkaloid are unbeaten at home in this EHF European Cup season, winning all five matches; in the domestic league, they have won 11 matches and drawn once at home
• for the first time, the EHF European Cup trophy could be lifted by a team from North Macedonia; this includes the previous versions of the third-tier competition (EHF City Cup and EHF Challenge Cup)
• history would repeat itself for Greek handball if Athens fail to make up their four-goal deficit, as they would follow as the competition’s runners-up after domestic rivals Olympiacos SFP endured this pain last season
• Alkaloid’s Martin Serafimov boosted his tally of goals to 68 and now trails the competition’s top scorer Diano Neris Cesko by nine goals; Serafimov has now scored 6.18 goals per game and has to outscore this number to catch the Croatian international
• since the EHF Challenge Cup season 2015/16, the winner of the competition has won the first leg of the final seven out of eight times; the only exception was a draw in the first leg in the 2018/19 season

Can the offences bounce back?

It was the story of the first leg: Both teams had strong defensive performances, holding their opponents comfortably below their season averages. Apart from Alkaloid’s good defence, AEK missed too many clear chances. These ‘easy goals’ could have turned the first leg around; five missed penalty shots tell one part of the story.

AEK only scored 49 per cent of their shots. Their goalkeepers delivered 10 saves, which sounds solid, but only for a 22 per cent save rate. On the other side, Alkaloid will want to limit their technical faults (seven). If both sides click offensively once more, it will be a very entertaining second leg.