Fivers attack

With heart, brains and a full house to win the opener

The Fivers want to hit the ground running in their semi-final opener at home against Linz on Saturday. Coach Peter Eckl expects a thrilling series against the runners-up. For team wing Eric Damböck, who is moving to Switzerland after the season, and Co. the aim is to go as far as possible.

A sold-out arena. Their own beer bar and a great atmosphere - the Fivers handball players are fired up for the league semi-final opener against Linz in Hollgasse on Saturday (18:30, live krone.tv).

The favorites in the best-of-3 series? "Not necessarily for us," says Margareten's club boss Tom Menzl, "because Linz have won both of their season duels by +3. But we'll grit our teeth and fight back with all our passion." The visitors are back in the thick of the action as latecomers in the basic round, just like last year when they finished runners-up. With Fizuletto, Grgic, Paulnsteiner and team goalie Kaiper (the latter two came from HLA champions Westwien), the eighth-placed team has a very strong squad.

"Linz's one-man line-up is very strong, Grgic is a difference-maker who can practically single-handedly secure victories," says Fivers coach Peter Eckl, whose club - honorary president Erwin Lanc celebrated his 94th birthday on Friday - now "surprisingly" has home court in sixth place. "A tight series awaits us, in which we'll have to fight back as a team with a lot of passion, heart and brains. We were able to show that against the BT Füchse." Especially in the deciding game in Bruck, when they won 36:34 in overtime to reach the semi-finals for the 19th time in a row.

In the parallel duel, title favorites Hard start at home against Krems on Saturday (20:20), where the team of European Championship wizard Consti Möstl wants to take the first step towards the final.