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Perkovac: Lemgo are playing fast and relaxed

In the 5th round they played a league duel in Minden and it ended 31-31. Today there is no draw as this is a fight for going through to the next round of the Cup

Lemgo are in a streak of negative results. They had three consecutive losses in which they conceded 34,35 and 33 goals. It should be pointed out those were matches against teams from the top of the league, Flensburg, Löwen and Füchse, and the last two matches they played without their best player, the right back Rolf Hermann. He will be back in the team tonight after he paused because of teeth surgery.

 - He will help us by his mere presence - said the coach Niels Pfannenschmidt.

Hermann didn't play or train for two and a half weeks so it is realistic to assume he won't be 100% ready. However, this season he had top-notch performances and proved himself to be an extremely important player for Lemgo and his return is a plus for both directions in the game.

Last weekend they didn't stand a chance against Füchse. Pfannenschmidt tried with a wider defense, Füchse crushed them, so he brought it back to 6-0 and slowed down the match a bit but the Berliners are at this moment playing, together with HSV, the best handball in Bundesliga and the young team of Lemgo, without Hermann, couldn't deal with them. Minden are a different story. They played against them in the 5th round away. They were the better team, lead for the most of the time, but it ended 31-31. Pfannenschmidt now has the entire team at his disposal and they are right to expect going through to the next round of the Cup.

After 10 league matches, Minden are the only team without a win in Bundesliga. Last week they were solid at HSV, despite the loss 35-30. HSV are currently playing turbo-handball and it is really hard to fight them. Minden conceded 35 goals but coach Perkovac was satisfied  with the performance of his 3-2-1 defense.

 - I am very satisfied. Of course, there are still things that need improvement, but most things worked out.

Minden were left without their left back Moritz Schäpsmeier in  the home loss against Lübbecke and we will not see him this evening.

 - Hamburg scored a lot of simple goals and that made the difference in the end - said Perkovac. That is the consequence of offensive play which wasn't good enough.

 - We did too many simple mistakes. We scored 30 goals in Hamburg, that is really good. I really liked the aggressiveness and body language of the players - the coach had to take some things as positive.

 - In Lemgo and against Wetzlar we stand a chance. We have to look positively on these matches. Lemgo have a clear hierarchy and are playing simple, fast and relaxed handball. They did a good job acquiring the middle back Herth - coach Perkovac started the preview for today's match which is another local derby.

 - We prepared well and analyzed the mistakes in the first match against them. The objective is, especially in the final moments, to score simple goals and be more efficient in the offense. Lemgo have tall players which we need to move around and then look for 1 on 1 situations.

Until the bookmakers decide to lift the margin up more significantly, we shouldn't back away from playing Lemgo's over. They force a fast game, with a fast center and a lot of running. That ended their first match against Minden 31-31, and since today they'll be getting back an important right back for the setup defense, then Lemgo will score their quota again. Minden have Doder, Bilbi, Svitlica... on the offense, enough players to follow the rhythm of the game. If they scored 30 against Hamburg in the away game last weekend, played 29-29 against Bergischer, 28-29 in a big local derby against Lubbecke, I don't see why this one wouldn't be a 60 goals margin.