Foreshadow: PSG – Veszprém

Very close to Champions League’s Final Four, MKB-MVM Veszprém, as last year, will have to defeat Paris again in order to get into Cologne. The clash against PSG will be on Sunday, 12 April at 6:30 pm in Paris. Live broadcast on Digi Sport1.

 

 

The team of PSG caused disappointment in last year’s season since it was not able to gain any trophies beside the French Cup. In French Championship they ended up in the 2nd place behind Dunkerque, while in CL they were defeated by Veszprém in the best 8. In the first tournament the Hungarian squad won 28:26 and in the second one in Veszprém 31:26.

 

The coach of the French team is still Philippe Gardent but there were some changes in the lineup of the players. Sierra and Robledo went to Szeged, Diaw signed to Dinamo Bukarest Hallgrímsson to Nimes, while Gábor Császár to Schaffhausen during the season.

 

Looking at the list of the new players we can say that the squad has become stronger. Thierry Omeyer and William Accambray came from Montpellier; and Xavier Barachet got back from the loan period in Saint Raphael.

 

In this season they are performing similarly as last year. 6 rounds before the end of the French tournament they are the 2nd behind Montpellier with 3-point difference. In Champions League they ended up the group round in group “A” in the 2nd place behind THW Kiel; they had 6 victories and 4 defeats. They were defeated by La Rioja (35:33), by Zagreb (25:24) and twice by Kiel (33:29, 25:27). In the best 16 they got Dunkerque as opponent team and they could win in both games against them. In CL their most productive player is the Danish left back Mikkel Hansen who is currently behind Kiril Lazarov and Momir Ilic in the 3rd place of the scoring list with 80 goals.

 

 

After SEHA League and last Saturday’s triumph against MOL-Pick Szeged, MKB-MVM Veszprém can prepare confidently for the match against the French rival. However, as Coach Carlos Ortega said this week, the team is supposed to forget last year’s victory because Paris is stronger now so the team has to perform their best.

 

Veszprém is travelling from Budapest to Paris Saturday morning; they will stay in Paris Marriott Rive Gauche Hotel & Conference****. The late lunch will be followed by a video analysis, and then from 6:30 pm the squad will train in the venue of the match, George Carpentier sports hall. In Sunday morning the team will analyse videos again. They will go to the tournament at 3:30 pm, and the game will begin at 5:30 pm in front of a full house of course. After the game, Veszprém will immediately travel back to Hungary and arrive after midnight.

 

In the following videos Cristian Ugalde and Christian Zeitz shared their opinion about the upcoming game against PSG:

 

 

 

Photo: Zsolt Melczer