In the last home game of the regular season, the people of Linz also have to play with weak substitutes: In addition to Alex and Max Hermann, Ajdin Alkic, Silas Wiesinger, Artan Selmani and Leon Ghent are also absent. But the team holds up well against the champions and winners of the regular season in the early stages and can always balance the game. In what is now a well-filled Sport Mittelschule Linz Kleinmünchen, Dejan Babic manages the first lead to 6:5 after almost ten minutes. The game remains tight afterwards, neither team can break away decisively, the Kremser go into the dressing room with a 19:18 lead.
In the second half, the Kremser can initially extend the lead with a few quick goals, after 34 minutes they fall behind by minus three for the first time. But Linz didn’t give up and came back: After almost 40 minutes, Dejan Babic scored the goal, four minutes later Moritz Bachmann made it 28:28 – the game is open again. As a result, Kremser can always go in front, but with a spirited, fighting good performance, Linzer cannot be shaken off, even five minutes before the end of the game they are only minus one, 32:33, behind. In the end, little things decide in favor of Kremser: Linz loses against Krems 34:37 (18:19).
Trainer Milan Vunjak: “I think that was a good advertisement for handball today. Our team put in a strong fight, the boys played well today and got more time. In the end you have to say we lost to the champions, but we played well and the many spectators were thrilled. Now we can go into the break up to the quarter-finals with satisfaction and confidence and hope that we can then have the injured players available again.”
HC LINZ AG vs. Förthof UHK Krems 34:37 (18:19)
First leg: Förthof UHK Krems vs. HC LINZ AG 28:25 (17:17)
Sat, April 15, 2023 at 7:00 p.m
Thrower HC LINZ AG: Dejan Babic (9), Tobias Cvetko (6), Moritz Bachmann (5), Christian Kislinger (4), Tine Gartner (4), Lucijan Fizuleto (4), Sinisa Sironjic (1), Elmar Böhm (1)
Thrower Förthof UHK Krems: Sinan Alkic (7), Romas Kirveliavicius (6), Marko Simek (5), Sebastian Feichtinger (5), Jakob Schwanzer (4), Benedikt Rudischer (4), Daniel Dicker (3), Jonathan Provin (1), Gabor Hajdu (1), Paul Hofmann (1)
The statistics
| 71% (34/48) | Throwing quote | 70% (37/53) |
| 57% (4/7) | seven meters | 100% (1/1) |
| 60% (34/57) | attack rate | 66% (37/56) |
| 16% (7/44) | goalkeeper total | 21% (9/42) |
