Day review 2: Big win for Montpellier; Vojvodina edge out Nexe
All four German and all three French clubs have started their group matches campaign in the EHF European League Men 2024/25 victorious on Tuesday night. One of the most notable results in the second time slot came from Montpellier Handball, who earned an unexpectedly clear 40:26 win against Bjerringbro-Silkeborg.
Two-time EHF Champions League winners HC Vardar 1961 and European debutants Limoges Handball also started with a victory, while Melsungen MT celebrated their comeback to the European stage with a great win at FC Porto. Vojvodina won the Balkan derby against RK Nexe, edging out the hosts in Nasice by a singe goal: 35:36.
I am proud of the way we played; our first-half performance was a reference for us this season in terms of commitment, our level of play, and our ability to project ourselves forward, and everyone throughout the team contributed.
We didn’t play to our ability and present ourselves and the club in a good light, so I’d like to apologise to our supporters. At half-time we said that we would forget the first half and be more present in the second, which we did up to a point. Not many teams come here and win.
The defence was not up to par — conceding 36 goals is too much, especially in a European game. They came up with opportunities too easily, we failed in one-on-one play and failed to impose our rhythm. Already tonight we will start with the analysis and preparations for the next game. We don't have much time to mourn, we have to turn to the next opponent. The competition has just begun.
We knew that better teams than Vojvodina had failed here. I think we deserved to win and we controlled the whole match. We led most of the game, almost all 60 minutes, and I'm really happy about that. This was a fantastic game, scoring 36 goals against such a quality team is a phenomenal result.
We played a good first half. Goalkeeper [Miguel] Espinha saved a lot of balls. We took our chances to score easy goals and played well in attack. I'm worried that we played one half, and after half-time it's a completely different game. We
have to work on that, we will work to improve it in the next game.
