baltic handball league logo

The bhl quarter-finals: granitas needs an away win

The decisive matches for spots in the BHL final four are still to be played. The quarter-final second leg will take place on Saturday. This will leave just four contenders for the champion title.

In the quarter-finals, the only team that managed to win the away match is Pölva Serviti. The Estonian champions defeated the Lithuanian vice-champion Granitas-Karys Kaunas 26:22 in their first game away. Saturday’s match will show whether the Pölva Serviti team’s four-goal lead will be enough.

Kalmer Musting (coach, Pölva Serviti):

We are not yet in the final four. The first game in Kaunas was an even fight and it was not easy for us to get the win. Four goals is not much. If we had won by an 8–10 goal margin, then we could think that we have one foot in the final four. We are preparing for a serious fight and we have to be 100% ready. Some aspects of our play need to be fixed. We played good defence, but we need to improve our attack. We made too many mistakes, we need to make fewer of them. Granitas will give its all in the fight against us, so it is going to be an interesting match.

Vaidotas Grosas (coach, Granitas-Karys):

We will fight as long as we have a chance of advancing to the final four. Of course, the chances are not great, as we will be playing away. In the first quarter-final matches, only one team – our opponents – managed to win their away match. It is always harder to play on the opposing team’s home court. Our opponents have weak spots where we can surprise them and attack successfully. We could have drawn the first match, or even won it. But we played poorly at the end of the match. The opponents have more experienced players. Some of our players are at a similar level to the Polva players, but not all. We will therefore have to compensate for this shortcoming with other things.

The match between Pölva Serviti and Granitas-Karys will take place on 25 March at 3.30 pm in the Mesikäpa hall.