by Simon Daish
Borussia Düsseldorf made a strong start to the match in Poland after positive outings from Kristian Karlsson and Timo Boll in their encounters against Wong Chun Ting (11-13, 11-8, 7-11, 3-11) and Wang Yang (9-11, 7-11, 8-11) handed the away team the early advantage.
However, the German champions then suffered back-to-back defeats with Jiri Vrablik and Wong Chun Ting prevailing over Anton Kallberg (11-4, 7-11, 7-11, 1-7, 11-4) and Timo Boll (14-12, 3-11, 1-11, 11-9, 11-8) to send the tie into a deciding fifth fixture.
Wang Yang stepped up to the table in an attempt to steal the match victory for K.S. Dekorglass Dzialdowo, but a fine display from Kristian Karlsson saw the Swedish player complete a brace (8-11, 9-11, 11-13) to hand Borussia Düsseldorf the win.
Two further victories came courtesy of German clubs as FC Saarbrücken and TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen both claimed two points from their respective encounters.
Patrick Franziska was one of the standout players with a brace of wins against Andrej Gacina (11-8, 11-7, 11-6) and Alexander Shibaev (11-7, 11-7, 11-9) proving valuable to FC Saarbrücken’s Group B success over TTSC UMMC of Russia, while over in Group C TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen came out on top by a 1-3 scoreline away to Stella Sport La Romagne.
Sporting Clube de Portugal look to be a real force on the continental scene after the Portuguese side made it two wins from two fixtures in Group A.
Despite Quadri Aruna suffering an early defeat the Nigeriann bounced back, emerging victorious over Pavel Sirucek (11-3, 12-10, 11-5) to seal the win against K.S. Dartom Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki.
Defending champions TTC Fakel Gazprom Orenburg proved too strong for French opponents AS Pontoise-Cergy, and the Czech Republic’s TTC Ostrava 2016 claimed its first win of the campaign with a positive trip to Austrian club SPG Walter Wels.
European Champions League: Results and Fixtures