Flensburg – Veszprém pregame statements

2016/17 season of Champions’ League starts for Telekom Veszprém on this Saturday at 5:30 pm. The Hungarian record champion will visit Flensburg, where they will play against each other on the “match of the week” according to EHF. Live broadcast on Sport1. We asked Roland Mikler, Dragan Gajic and Marko Kopljar besides head coach Xavi Sabaté.

 

 

Xavi Sabaté: Flensburg is the first one in the Bundesliga. They have a really good coach and team and only small changes happened compared to last year. Champions’ League is back in our lives, we will play our first match away, which must be hard. I remember that one year ago PSG got defeated by many goals in Flensburg so that is definitely a warning sign. Flensburg is good at every area of handball but their fast breaks are especially dangerous and we can say that maybe they are the best ones in that in Europe. Defense will be the most important for us as always. To win away we have to perform close to perfect during the whole game.

 

 

Roland Mikler: We prepare for every match with the same care and try to do everything what the coach have asked from us. Of course we have some special tactical elements for this match particularly both in defense and offense. I believe if our defense is good and we get only 25 goals or less we will have a real chance to win. Every player is dangerous by them with two good lines. They are good both individually and as a team. Their unity might be their biggest power. We have to draw strength from last year’s victory away, with which we proved to ourselves that we can win in their home. We have to fight as a team and give our best to do that again.

 

 

Dragan Gajic: I could have good memories about Flensburg but individual performance does not count because it is always the team whose victory is important. So basically these memories are not nice because I have lost there with my former team, Montpellier. If I do not score any goals on this match but the team wins, I will be the happiest person. We know that their team is very powerful and fast especially on home court. However, we also have our strength. We have to lead our attacks wisely and try to create the best shooting positions because Andersson is in a very god form. We have to be as good in defense as we were in Brest and and score fast break goals. A real clash of titans is expected between the two teams with 32 excellent players in the Flens Arena.

 

 

Marko Kopljar: Flensburg started last year’s CL season very well and of course they want to be good in this year again. According to the previous years we can say that their team is one of the best ones in Europe. They represent the real German style with a lot of running and hard 6-0 defense with a great goalkeeper. They score as many fast break goals as they can. We have to prepare for that, shoot from the best positions and after the attack we have to run back really fast and find our place in defense. This match would be very interesting anytime in the season but this will be the first one in the new CL season for both teams so it will be particularly exciting.

 

Fotó: Dávid Vörös