The leaders halt our run and the new coaching staff’s debut

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto suffer a heavy defeat (30-16) away to the leaders of the División de Honor Plata Masculina, Cajasol Sevilla BM Proin, in the first match of the second half of the competition and the debut of the Sergio Mallo–Manu Etayo partnership as the new coaching staff.

The match began with three consecutive saves from Kilian Ramírez, which prevented the visitors from opening their account. The first goal came in the fourth minute from Carlos Martín. The home side regularly found pivot Víctor Deco in the central area of the Valencian defence. Alberto Serradilla came up against Kilian Ramírez twice from seven-metre throws. A two-minute suspension for Álex Pozzer and two successive goals from Pablo Soler on the left wing created the first significant gap on the scoreboard (4-1) in the eighth minute, which was only reduced with Dani Martínez’s introduction.

The side from the Valencian Community remained stuck on three goals for more than ten minutes, specifically from the 9th to the 20th minute. The Sevillians’ lead was already +4 (7-3) in the 17th minute, when Sergio Mallo called his first time-out. Alexander Tioumentsev’s playmaking from centre-back continued to increase the home side’s advantage, making it 9-4 in the 22nd minute. The home goalkeeper remained unbeatable and, in addition, the hosts began to run more because of the visitors’ mistakes, especially in attack. Half-time arrived with the score at 11-6.

Two goals from Raúl Morales on the right wing allowed the Andalusians to establish a new maximum lead of +7 (14-7) in the 33rd minute, largely caused by their opponents’ poor decisions in attack. The gap continued to grow, reaching +8 (15-7) and +9 (16-7). With the latter, Sergio Mallo stopped the match again after the 5-1 run following the restart and seeing the opportunity to take points slipping away. The Sevillians’ goalkeeping percentages remained as strong as in the first half and, in attack, the goals were shared among several players. In the 40th minute, with the score at 20-8, the red-and-whites had used all their time-outs with twenty minutes remaining.

The time-out had no effect and, by the 42nd minute, the difference had risen to +14 (22-8). The visitors gave up on the match and turnovers continued to occur, exploited time and again by the home side against non-existent defensive retreats. Given the circumstances, the new coaching staff used the 40×20 to give playing time to almost all the selected players. This decision allowed the Sevillians to reach a +16 lead (30-14) in the 56th minute. The final score was 30-16.

With this defeat, Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto’s run of nine consecutive matches earning points comes to an end, and they drop one place in the league table (fourth, with 22 points), after their goal difference worsened on this matchday. They also lose control of their own destiny in the race to regain top spot, despite having the postponed match from December, delayed because of the red alert issued by AEMET, against Servigroup Benidorm still to play this January. At the same time, they lose the +4 head-to-head goal difference they held over Cajasol Sevilla BM Proin in the event of a hypothetical points tie in May.

The next fixture will be on Saturday 24 from 18:30, when they host BM Contazara Zaragoza at Pabellón Port de Sagunt.

MATCH DETAILS:

Cajasol Sevilla BM Proin (30): Alberto Ruiz (4), Tito Díaz (2), Raúl Morales (4), Julián López Mon (2), Ramón Fuentes (1), Carlos Conchillo (-), Javier Castilla (1), Tioumentsev (5), Pablo Soler (3), Miguel Llorens (-), Kilian Ramírez (-), David Martínez (2), José Moguel Prado (2), Víctor Deco (3), Ángel Montoro (-), Julio Morgado (1).

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto (16): Juani Villarreal (-), Marcos Castañeda (-), Olivares (1), Francisco Ruiz (2), Jakob Pelko (-), Dani Martínez (-), Pozzer (-), Arnau Fernández (4), Gonzalo (1), David García (1), Matheus de Novais (5), Serradilla (-), Capitán (-), Zungri (1), Carlos Martín (1), Teixidor (-).

Referees: Álvaro López Novoa and Cristian Da Silva Barbadaes.

Suspensions: Julián López Mon, Pablo Soler, Alex Pozzer and David García, each for two minutes.

Scoring sequence: 1-1, 4-3, 5-3, 7-3, 9-5, 11-6 (half-time); 16-7, 19-8, 22-9, 23-11, 28-13 and 30-16 (full-time).

Match information: Matchday 16 of the División de Honor Plata Masculina, played at Centro Deportivo Amate.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.