Guif victorious in first quarterfinal vs Hamburg on home turf.

Today, Guif took on visiting HSV Hamburg in the first quarterfinal between the t
wo. Despite the hype surrounding the previous Champions League winners, Guif too
k on their opponents without fear and with a ravenous hunger for victory. After
a high intensity first half ending at 12-13, Guif switched gears and ended the g
ame with a 29-26 victory.
After an explosive start of the match, where Guif grabbed a quick 3-1 lead, the
two teams took turns leading the charge. Many of the highlights of today's match
took place in the defensive game. The steady ongoing rotation between Guifs goa
lkeepers is not exactly a secret anymore, but nevertheless it still seems like a
recipe for success. Both Aron Rafn Evarsson and Herdeiro Lucau performed a number
of impressive saves at important moments in the match. Some prime examples are
the Penalty throw save from Lucau and the double save from Evarsson that had the c
rowd screaming their lungs out in excitement. Goalkeepers aside, the defensive g
ame in general maintained a high level for both teams, even though a few misspla
ys left substantial openings for the opposing attackers to waltz through and sco
re.
Offensively, neither team impressed quite as much as they did defensively. There
were certainly moments you would want to watch replays of over and over, but th
ere were also quite a few botched attempted attacks. Fumbling, missed opportunit
ies and offensive fouls were all commonplace in large portions of the match. How
ever, pretty much all of the players played their respective parts when it came
to scoring. A whopping ten out of eleven active players scored once or more for
Guif, of which three managed to outmaneuver the german goalkeepers, namely heavy
hitter Viktor stlund, counterattack king Mathias Tholin and penalty throw specia
list Daniel Petterson. Helge Freiman also deserves an honorable mention after ge
tting Guifs scoring started with two out of their three early goals. One of the
most impressive moments in the match happened with merely a few minutes left on
the clock. With one man less due to a penalty, Guif sneakily removed goalkeeper
Lucau and threw in Rickard kerman as an extra offensive player, who immediately c
harged forwards and found his way past Johannes Bitter, goalkeeper of Hamburg as
well as the German national team.
On Hamburgs side of things, the scoring was slightly more monotonous, as Kentin
Mah was responsible for an impressive eight goals, doubtlessly pulling most of th
e weight for Hamburgs offense. Defensively, Davor Dominikovic had a massive pres
ence, being more visible and audible than the rest of his team combined most of
the time.
The number of spectators was also a tad higher than that of Guifs previous EHF m
atch. 1551 defied the warming spring sun and found their way into the sports hal
l, which could definitely be felt volume wise. The enthusiastic cheering was pre
tty much constant and the crowd also let their voices be heard during less impre
ssive moments, like when one of the french referees managed to (miss)place himse
lf in the path of an accelerating Mathias Tholin heading for another swift count
erattack, leading to player and ref alike crashnig to the floor.
After todays victory, Guif can look forward to a rematch in Hamburg on April 19.
If Guif can win, tie the match or lose with less than three goals, they can go
ahead and plan their trip to Berlin in may for the final playoffs.
Scorers, Guif: Viktor stlund 5, Daniel Petterson 5(4), Mathias Tholin 5, Helge Fr
eiman 3, Jesper Lundgren 3, Rickard kerman 2, Daniel Ekman 2, Atli Aevar Ingolfss
on 2, Emil Andersson 1, Richard Blank 1.
Scorers, Hamburg: Kentin Mah 8, Kevin Schmidt 4, Pascal Hens 3, Stefan Schrder 3,
Petar Djordjic 2, Matthias Flohr 2, Adrian Pfahl 2, Alexandru Viorel Simicu 2.