Foreshadow: Skjern – Veszprém

 

Skjern Handbold hosts Telekom Veszprém on Sunday at 4:50 p.m. in the first leg of the eights-final of the VELUX EHF Champions League. The game will be broadcasted live by Sport 1 from 4:30 p.m.

 

 

The last time Skjern and Veszprém played against each other was nearly 15 years ago, and in total, those two games were the only ones between the two teams. The last two games were played in the 2003/2004 season when both teams were in the same group in the Champions League. The first one was played in 8 November 2003 and Fotex Veszprém managed to win 23:26 in Denmark. That time Slavko Goluza and Kiril Lazarov scored six goals each. The second encounter took place in November 2003 as well but this time in Veszprém. The result was a 33:29 for the home team. Mirza Dzomba scored ten goals while Kiril Lazarov ended the game with nine.

 

Skjern finished the Danish championship on the second place last season, mainly thanks to the play-off system of their league because they only finished on fourth place in the regular season. They were successful in the upper league after the series were divided, and they were able to qualify for the semifinals. There they met with Ribe-Esbjerg and won the series 2:0, which means they won two games in a row out of the best of three series. The final was the same system, and they started well against Aalborg. They clinched a 26:26 draw in the first game in away but this was not enough for them to get the championship title. At home, they suffered a seven goals loss and finished the league with a silver medal. Their top scorer in the domestic league was Markus Olsson who scored 138 goals in 26 games. Behind him was our former player Bjarte Myrhol with 129 goals, with 77% efficiency which made him the most efficient player of the Danish championship.

 

 

They are doing well this year in the 888Ligaen by standing on second spot even in the regular season and with only one point deficit behind the first GOG. They played on Wednesday last time and won 26:22 against the last team in the league Tonder.

 

Our next opponent started their Champions League journey in group ‘C’ with León, Velenje, Schaffhausen, Eleverum and Dinamo Bucharest. Their 10 games ended with 8 victories and 2 losses. Only Velenje and Schaffhausen could defeat them. They closed the group phase in first position and awaited their opponent from group ‘D’, which turned out to be Motor Zaporozhye. Surprisingly Skjern lost in Ukraine 32:30 but the series was far from over as the Danish side recorded a seven goals victory at home, with the result being 33:26. Their top scorer in the CL is Markus Olsson with 71 goals, which puts him to the fourth position in the Champions League top scorer list behind our very own Máté Lékai who bagged 72 goals so far.

 

The ”Építők” played in Komló a week ago in the Hungarian championship. Cristian Ugalde scored 8 times in the 24:32 victory. Before this they played in the K&H League as well when they hosted Balatonfüred and recorded a win of 40:26. In the Champions League they closed the group phase against Celje on 3 March at home. The game ended in a 29:22 Veszprém win. The boys are preparing well for the weekend because our next opponent is not to be underestimated. It is even enough to highlight the Serbian goalkeeper of Skjern, who saved seven penalties against Motor. He said the following to the official Champions League website: ““We are obviously the underdogs and we can only surprise, so we have nothing to lose and feel no pressure ahead of those two games” The players of Telekom Veszprém have to be very careful to avoid Skjern surprising them without any pressure from their side.

 

Let’s go Veszprém!

 

 

Photo: Dávid Vörös, VELUX EHF Champions League Facebook page