Foreshadow: Montpellier – Veszprém

 

Montpellier HB will host Telekom Veszprém on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in the VELUX EHF Champions League. The game will be broadcasted by Sport 1 from 5:15 p.m.

 

 

The last time we have met Montpellier was in Strasbourg at the Eurotournoi preparation tournament, where we suffered a defeat of 30:26 in the group phase. From the French side Melvyn Richardson scored eight times, while on the Hungarian side László Nagy and Borut Mackovsek scored four times each.

 

Montpellier was the runner-up of last year’s French championship, although they collected the same amount of points as the champions PSG, they came short by goal difference. They had 22 victories, a draw and 3 losses in 26 games. Their top scorer was Valentin Porte with 92 goals.

Currently they are on 4th position after 6 rounds. They have 5 wins and a loss. They played against the last in the series, Pontault and managed to win 30:26. Their top scorer in the league is Melvyn Richardson with 33 goals.

 

The reigning champion is suffering in the Champions League as they could not win a single game in four rounds. They currently have zero point and suffered defeats from Vardar, Brest, Kielce and Barcelona. Melvyn Richardson scores the most goals this season, who has 12 so far. The last year’s success story started in Group C, from where they reached the best four in Cologne, going through Barcelona and Flensburg. There, they defeated the favorite Vardar 27:28, while winning the French derby in the final against Nantes 32:28. The MVP of the Final4 was Diego Simonet.

 

 

There was no big movements at the French side this summer, only one player left and the same amount left the club, to which one could say the core of the winning team stayed together. Not so fast, as the one departing player was Ludovic Fabregas, who had a big influence on the team last year in both defense and offense. He signed with Barcelona. His replacement at the club will be Fredric Pettersson from Toulouse.

 

The “Építők” played in Brest last time in the Champions League and managed to clinch two points after the penalty save of Mikler. The result was a 29:28 victory. Our top scorer there was Manuel Strlek with 6 goals.

 

There were significant changes in the roster and coaching staff of Telekom Veszprém, which means that this game will not only be hard just because of the opponent. However, according to the new head coach, David Davis, the team is ready for this new situation and for new challenges.

 

Let’s go Veszprém!

 

 

Photo: Dávid Vörös