SC Magdeburg also won its 20th game in a row. Magdeburg’s clear success at FC Porto was sweetened by a defeat by Veszprem.
SC Magdeburg continued its successful run in the Champions League. Coach Bennet Wiegert’s team ultimately achieved a dominant 40:31 (19:16) victory at FC Porto. The defending champions celebrated their eighth victory in the premier class and their 20th victory in a row across all competitions.
Cheers at the SCM (archive photo).
Second place thanks to Veszprem defeat
With the win, the SCM climbed to second place in preliminary group B. The Magdeburgers benefited from the defeat of the Hungarian club Veszprem, who lost 30:37 at Wisla Plock.
Porto keeps up for half time
In the high-scoring game in Portugal, Magdeburg were in the lead from the start and didn’t let it go throughout the game. With an offensive defense, the SCM forced many mistakes from the hosts and thus scored many goals. For the first time, the SCM was ahead by three goals after new minutes (7:4). Because the SCM defense didn’t have any real access, Porto stayed on for a long time (15:16/24th). Thanks to a hat-trick from Lukas Mertens (2) and Janus Dadi Smarason, the SCM pulled ahead by four goals shortly before the break (19:15/29th), and went into the break with a 19:16 lead.
Portner holds and scores
After the change, Magdeburg quickly made things clear. The Club World Cup winner repeatedly forced the Portuguese to make mistakes in their build-up and switched quickly. Above all, the attacks from the outside were used consistently. Goalkeeper Nikola Portner also made eight saves. The Swiss was even able to get on the top scorer list with two goals into the empty net. In the final minutes, the second SCM goalkeeper Sergey Hernandez also thwarted two seven-meter penalties.
SCM keeper Portner: eight saves and two goals scored (archive photo).
Strong second half of SCM
Already in the 37th minute and with a six-goal lead, a preliminary decision had been made (24:18), shortly afterwards Smarason took the first eight-goal lead. The SCM now had an easy game, shortly before the end Smarason even scored the 40th goal for the Saxony-Anhalters (60th).
Perfect Exploitation of opportunities by Magnusson
The best throwers in the game were Omar Ingi Magnusson and Tim Hornke with eight goals each. Magnusson took advantage of his chances perfectly, every throw was a goal for him. The best Portuguese was Antonio Martinez Llamazares with seven goals.
Dirk Hofmeister
