SC Magdeburg achieved its third success in the Champions League. The win against FC Porto involved hard work.
Defending champions SC Magdeburg recorded their third preliminary round victory in the Champions League. Coach Bennet Wiegert’s handball team managed a difficult 37:33 (18:17) victory against FC Porto on Thursday evening.
In the end Damgaard couldn’t be held
The best SCM throwers in the Getec Arena were Omar Ingi Magnusson (nine goals) as well as Janus Dadi Smarason and Michael Damgaard with seven goals each. The Dane Damgaard could not be stopped in the decisive phase. For Magdeburg, who like Porto had previously had two wins and two defeats, it was their third win in Group B on matchday five. This time the SCM started in goal with Sergey Hernandez. His front men quickly eased the situation with a 7-2 lead after eight minutes. But after a quarter of an hour the Portuguese record champions reduced the score to 8:9. The defending champions repeatedly made too many errors in the build-up of the game. The guests shortened the score to 13:13 (22nd minute) and even had two chances to take the lead.
SCM benefits from individual class
After the change, coach Carlos Resende’s team managed a 3-0 run and thus a 20:18 lead. The SCM corrected this score within four minutes. However, the game didn’t go much better. It was only when the tempo increased that Magdeburg opened up more gaps and then pulled back a little further to 25:22. Nevertheless, it was mostly individual performances like Damgaard’s that led to success. Ten minutes before the end, the SCM got ahead to 30:26, but Porto reduced it again to 32:33 (56th). Magdeburg remains in fourth place in the table. The first two teams advance directly to the group of eight.
dpa/cke
