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Lemgo managed to avoid relegation last season through home games against direct competitors (Balingen 30-28, Stuttgart 29-26, Eisenach 35-30, Lübbecke 25-23) and lost only to Berischer 28-26. But they recorded 26-20 against Gummerscbach and 30-25 against Leipzig. Also, they got a point against Wetzlar. The one common thing about all of those games is very few goals in the first half. The only exception is Eisenach but who ever followed that league last season knows that Eisenach are not that level. This is how the rest of the games went by half time: Balingen 14-11, Stuttgart 13-13, Bergischer 11-10, Lübbecke 13-11. Last week against Luccecke Lemgo were 13-9 at half time, in the last friendly against hannover 10-13. Before that, they had 21-10 against Hameln, 7-11 against Hamm. That is why I have more than enough reason to believe in proper defense level in the first half. Coach Kehrmann often goes with an extra player in the field later on and that is how they squanderd away the Lubbecke game in the Cup. That is why I'll go with the first half here.
Minden are the ideal opponents for that. Their offense with Doder, Freitag, Schampsmeier, Kozlin, Michalczyk has done nothing to earn my trust. They know how important this game is and this is a local derby, we shouldn't expect anything magnificent. Two years ago, Minden had a very similar team and lost 38-21 here. It was 18-6 by half time. They lost 30-23 home (14-12 in the first half). Details

Albania showed why they are the weakest team in this qualification period, they played bad against Georgia, they were down by 26 before halftime, scored only 19 points in the first 20 minutes. Montenegro are one of the best teams in the qualifications, a team that demolished Slovakia with half the strength, they were in the lead by 22 by halftime, coach Tanjevic did not keep any player on the court longer than 20 minutes. I expect the same scenario today as the one from Wednesday. Montenegrins will have a key game for the top spot in a few days in Tbilisi against Georgia, and it is expected that they will solve the game early. Slovakia do not stand a chance, but they are still better than Albania, Montenegro are two levels above Slovakia, then what does that tell us about them and Albania? Home court is not a relevant factor here, the quality difference is too big. American Broadus proved that he is not much of a reinforcement, he could be out of form, and even if he was in form he doesn't have anyone to play with. In the pre-season, Albania lost by over 40 against Cyprus, Estonia and Israel B. The team under on Albania in the first half is a bit better option than the first half handicap. Albania scored 19 points in the first half on Wednesday, before that in the 6 preparation games this Summer they did not score over 25. Maybe the home team will show more combativeness than they did so far, they are playing at home, but they lack offensive talent to provide a better performance. At a neutral court, Montenegro defeated Hungary by 27 and 23, Switzerland 26 and 33, Slovakia by 28 on Wednesday. All these teams are much more serious that Albania, but the weakest in quality of all Montenegro faced this Summer. Details

Iceland hit 88 points int he first game but that is not realistic. They played the feeble Switzerland who play poor defense, which allowed Iceland to do what ever they wanted to. Things will be very different today. A team that plays slow-paced, well-organized game with a strong emphasis on defense that doesn't let opponents breathe. Even though Cyprus lost at the start of qualification in Belgium, they limited the opponents to just 65 points. The test game was similar. The 'Greek-style' game Cyprus play is the only way for Cyprus to win. They are particularly motivated today as they look for their first qualifying win. Iceland are not good, except for Stefansson, who is better in defense than offense. That is why Iceland will be in trouble today. Their top and only center is 2 meters tall and they clearly cannot count on rebounding, which is very important in bets and matches like this one. I think Cyprus are the favorites and I believe that the home team will slow the game down and the most logical choice here is points under at visitors. Details

Poland managed to pull themselves through a tough situation yesterday and they took that as a warning. They are a 'machine' which was very visible against France yesterday. They made 22 mistakes, 15 on serve, in the fist two sets and only 8 after that. They limited France to 15 points and to 22 in the fourth set bu they had a 21-15 lead and saved power for the fifth set. Ukraine won the war with Bulgaria but even losing wouldn't be undeserved. It was obvious that they struggle with consistency but Bulgaria were even worse. I've chosen the first set under because I expect Poland to start fiercely and in that case, Ukraine won't have much say. Poland won all the sets under this margin (44,5) at EC last year, except in the first match with Italy. They played a set at 40 points (25-15 in the final), at 41 against Russia (2-16). They allowed Turkey to get 19. Those teams are better than Ukraine. They limited the French to 9 points, Serbia and Denmark to 15, while they limited Slovakia and Belarus in EC qualifiers to 19. In qualifiers for this championship, they have an over with Denmark and then unders with Hungary (25-18) and Germany (25-17). They limited Germany in the playoff to 17 points. Ukraine have more overs than unders at this margin but none of the opponents were close to Poland in quality. Poland have 11 unders and 3 ovres at this margin when it comes to EC or WC qualifiers. Looking at their record at WC last season, they are 14-6. They went into overs with powerful Iran and Australia, in the semis and final. Ukraine spent 154 minutes on the floor yesterday and used up a lot of energy. Their two important players didn't show up for preparation period and I don't see them going 20+ here. Details

Cocks belongs to the group of unknown clubs, but even as such they have a chance to fight for the Champions League. This season they played a few friendlies as preparation for this tournament: HC Vise 20-21 (11-11), Wacker Thun 21-25 (11-16), Luzern 22-17 (6-10). In none of those games Cocks have not scored over 11 by halftime. Let's look at Velenje's last games. At a tournament in Hungary, 13-12 against Churg by halftime, and 15-10 against Varazdin. 15-9 against Maribor. It is obvious that Sibila has found the right formula and that the team's form is improving after the return from Germany. Sibila is known as a great defensive strategist. Since Velenje will have a more important game a day later, we should expect them to start strong. It is hard to expect the Finns to record high numbers in the first half. Besides, these same Finns were limited to 9 goals before halftime against St. Gallen at the EHF qualifications last year. Details