HC Hard pulled off a surprise in the penultimate group game of the European League. Austria’s handball vice champion prevailed on Tuesday against the Croatian top team RK Nexe with 29:22 (14:12). Advancement to the round of 16 was already out of reach. Die Harder celebrated their first win of the current group phase at the ninth attempt. Previously, only a 30:30 home draw in December against Balatonfüredi KSE from Hungary was recorded.
In the home game against Nexe at the end of November, Harder suffered a clear 24:35 defeat. In the second leg in Nasice, Karolis Antanavicius and Luca Raschle impressed with five goals each. Dominik Schmid, Nikola Stevanovic, Nico Schnabl and Jadranko Stojanovic each contributed four goals. Nexe, as the leader of the table, was already clear as a climber before the game. Hard drew level with Balatonfüredi by three points with the first win in the competition.
The final European League game for Harder next Tuesday (8:45 p.m.) is at home against BM Granollers from Spain. In the domestic league, Vorarlberg will welcome champions UHK Krems on Friday (6.30 p.m.) in a repeat of last year’s final.