The Raimond Handball secured a place in Round 3 of the EHF European Cup by beating Kastrioti 40-27 in the second leg of their Round 2 tie, played on Sunday 18 October at PalaSantoru in Sassari. After winning the first leg, the red-and-blues wrapped up the tie with an aggregate score of 77-55.
The result in the second leg, following a 19-11 first half, confirmed the advantage built in the first game, which the Sassari side won 37-28. The report on the first leg against Kastrioti tells the story of the opening chapter in a two-leg tie in which Raimond won both matches and secured passage to the next round by a 22-goal margin.
The Kosovars also started strongly in the match at PalaSantoru, with Bajrami and Lakicevic scoring. Kastrioti held the lead until the 16th minute, when Jarlstam made it 8-8. From that point on, Raimond took control, turning the tie into a decisive lead: a 9-1 run over the next ten minutes put the score at 17-9 in the 26th minute.
The Sassari side went into the break eight goals ahead at 19-11 and kept up the pace in the second half. Jarlstam, with seven goals, was the top scorer in the second leg; Ben Hiba finished close behind with six. Across the 120 minutes of the two-leg tie, the team recorded a 77 percent shooting rate and 15 saves, shared between goalkeepers Pavani and Lubinati.
With qualification secured, coach Ratko Durkovic managed the players’ energy levels and gave everyone in the squad playing time ahead of their league commitments. Raimond kept scoring: in the 58th minute, Alberto Mura made it 40-26, the biggest lead of the evening at 14 goals. Isufi then scored Kastrioti’s final goal to make the score 40-27.
The attacking performance was also a team effort, with ten Raimond players getting on the scoresheet. With their European campaign wrapped up for this round, the red-and-blues are preparing to return to league action against Molteno, their next opponent according to the club’s fixture list.