In the 5th round of the K&H Men's Handball League, the ETO University Handball Team played as a guest at PLER-Budapest. The first half was a close battle, with ETO leading 16-18 at halftime. In the second half, the gap between the two teams widened, and in the end, the boys from Győr secured a confident 31-38 victory.
This time, Ásványi Gellert, Tibor Gerdán, and András Koncz were not included in the squad. Pásztor started in goal for Győr, while head coach Bálint Kilvinger sent Hári, Bozovic, Bombac, Vilovski, Balogh, and Dörnyei onto the field for the attack. The home team scored the first goal, but Balogh responded in the next play (1-1). Our team took the lead with a goal from Dörnyei, followed by one from Bombac (2-4). After 15 minutes, our team maintained a two-goal lead (7-9). In the 19th minute, the home team equalized (10-10), but this didn’t last long, as first Dörnyei, then Balogh, scored again for PLER (10-12). In the final minutes, the home team managed to come within a goal multiple times, but we still ended the half with a 16-18 advantage.
The second half started with two home goals, so PLER equalized at 18-18, but thanks to Pásztor's defense and Vilovski's shot, we led 18-19. After that, the goals were back-to-back, but neither team was able to score more than one or two goals (20-22). However, after a domestic time-out, our team doubled its advantage and led by 20-24 in the 40th minute. In the 43rd minute, the head coach of PLER called a third time-out when Győr was leading 20-26. The time-out was good for the home team, as they scored two goals in a few minutes (22-26). For the last ten minutes of the match, the teams turned around with Győr leading 24-31. Our team was able to maintain its advantage in the last minutes, and in the end we won a confident victory in Budapest.
Bálint Kilvinger: "The match was what I expected; we knew the home team wouldn’t give up easily. We were prepared for the 7-6 game and tried to stay patient. In the second half, when they started making mistakes, we managed to pull ahead. The atmosphere was great, and I’m happy with the win. The match wasn’t as easy as the score might suggest; our experience was key. Congratulations to both teams on a hard-fought victory."
Imre Pásztor: "I’d like to congratulate the home team; we played an excellent match. It was back and forth, with us leading, but they kept coming back. Scoring became easier in the second half. The score difference doesn’t fully reflect how challenging the match was. We’re very happy to earn these two points—they’re important to us."
