SKP Bratislava — Modra 26:30
Modra claimed three points on the road in the Extraliga on Friday, outscoring SKP Bratislava 26:30 in what proved to be a tightly contested opening fixture. The visitors held their nerve down the stretch and were dominant in the air from set plays when it mattered most.
We had backed the home side with 58 per cent confidence, but the match went another way. The break in play between periods let Modra tighten things up, and Bratislava never got out of second gear after that. By then the momentum had shifted, and the hosts could not find a response.
Both sides entered the evening with nothing on the board — zero games, zero points — so the table tells us little beyond the season having just begun. The real story sits in the recent results: SKP Bratislava suffered back-to-back defeats against SBS Egger Eszterházy in August, while Modra also endured two losses on 22 August, one of them a narrow 25:28 defeat to Litovec.
The away side's recent run has been uneven, but they showed composure here. To be fair, the hosts had not lost to anyone of Modra's calibre since April, yet they let the game flow too freely in the closing stages. The clean-sheet run came to an end for the visitors, who now have one foot in the next phase of the season.