The men’s handball competition has begun. On the first day the host team from Rijeka did not manage to delight the spectators with a win, as the University of Minho fought bravely and managed to get a draw. There was plenty of excitement in the game between VERN’ University of Applied Sciences and the University of the Littoral Opal Coast from France, while other favorites achieved convincing wins.
GROUP A
The first game of the competition was tense – the team from Rijeka wanted to delight the home crowd, but they were up against a strong Portuguese team from Minho. The fact that Matija Golik was disqualified a few minutes before the end of the game only confirms the intense atmosphere of the game.
Rijeka was led by the two Matijas, Matija Golik and Matija Briški who scored half of their team’s goals, while Diogo Branquino and Miguel Pereira led Minho with 17 goals.
The team from Cologne dominated the second game of group A, beating Ljubljana 26:19. Even though it seemed that it would be more interesting after one of Cologne players, David Koenen, was disqualification in the fifth minute, his teammates proved more powerful in the rest of the game.
An even scoring sheet shows the dominance of the German team, while Petar Krivic scored 6, and Jan Jurečić 5 goals for the team from Ljubljana.
GROUP B
The team from the University of Niš was ruthless in their game against Constantin Brancusi University from Romania, winning with a 23 goal difference. They managed to score 47 goals, allowing the opponents to score ‘only’ 24 goals. They certainly left the biggest impression with this victory on the first day of the competition, and announced their potential route to the final.
Nemanja Živković led the winning team with 10 goals, while Razvan Mledencio impressed with 7 goals for the Romanian team.
The team from the University of Aveiro easily beat the team from the University of Innsbruck with a score of 27:16. The Portuguese demonstrated a great defense and an efficient attack, and already had a five goal lead at half-time, finishing the job in the second part and winning their first points.
Ulisses Ribeiro scored 8 goals for his team, while Christoph Kalchauer scored 6 for Innsbruck.
GROUP C
The first host team to be awarded points in the handball competition was the VERN’ team, who won that was an uncertain game against the University of Littoral Cote d’Opale from France. After an even first half, the Zagreb players gathered the strength to win.
Bruno Franjić and Antoine Desaegher had a shooting showdown which ended in a tie, as both of them scored 6 goals.
The team from the University of Basel from Switzerland beat their colleagues from Yeditepe University from Turkey with a score of 29:18. The winner could be determined even after the first half, as the Swiss had a 7 goal difference.
Max Gerbl, Simon Trussel, And Pascal Obroli scored 16 out of the 29 goals by their team, while Kristopher Manersberdger scored 8 goals for his team.
GROUP D
Even though the team from Niš scored the most goals on the first day, the University of Cordoba demonstrated the best game on both ends of the field. They conceded the least goals in the first round (14), and scored 32, showing a balanced game in all segments. Their first victims were the students from Cyprus, and the score was 32: 14 for the boys from Spain.
Ignacio Garcia and Jose de la Calzada were in charge of scoring goals for their team, which they did brilliantly. Ignacio scored 8, and Jose 7 in their team’s victory. Nicolas Pattouras was the only player in a good mood in his team, with 7 scored goals.
The team from the University of Zagreb won their first game, beating the Lithuanian team with 27:21. They played had the advantage in the first half the first half (12:7), and calmly brought the game to an end in the second half.
Neven Grgurić scored 6 goals for his team, while Urboan Mindaugas was the top scorer in the defeated team, with 5 goals.
