Foreshadow: Veszprém – Celje

 

On Friday at 5:15 p.m., Telekom Veszprém will host RK Celje Pivovarna Lasko in the Veszprém Arena. Our last preparation game will be broadcasted live by Echo Tv, and then recorded on Sport 2 at 7:30 p.m.

 

 

Thanks to the good relationship between Celje and Veszprém, the two Clubs meet more than once every year, even so when they are not in the same group in the Champions League. They participated at the HandballCity Festival last summer, for the 40th anniversary tournament of the Club, and they even in the same group as us in the Champions League. We played against them right in the first round and managed to win in Slovenia with 8 goals, 31:39. Our top scorer was Máté Lékai with 9 goals. In the closing round we managed to beat them again at home by 7 goals, 29:22. Our top scorer was Máté Lékai again, this time with 6 goals.

 

Celje participated in Group B in the Champions League. They could not qualify for the best 16, as they have finished on 7th position, trailing Meshkov Brest with 3 points. They played 14 games and won 3 times, draw once and lost 10 times. Their top scorer was Ziga Mlakar with 51 goals, but he plays in Wisla Plock from this season on.

 

Our next opponent played in the SEHA League last year as well, where they had a great year. They had 18 games and won 11, draw twice and lost 5 times, which put them to the 3rd place in the regular season, and qualified for the Final4 in Skopje. They met Zagreb in the semi-final and lost by 1 goal. The Slovenians had one more push at the bronze medal game and managed to defeat Meshkov Brest by 3 goals, 31:28. Their top scorer in the league was Ziga Mlakar with 78 goals, behind finished him the new Veszprém signing Borut Mackovsek with 70 goals.

 

 

Celje joined the Slovenian championship for the play-offs. They had to play 10 games at home and won 8 times while drawing twice. With this performance, they won their domestic league, while Ribnica finished on second place and Velenje on third.

 

This summer, 4 players have left Celje. Urban Lesjak went to Hannover, Ziga Mlakar signed with Wisla Plock, Ivan Sliskovic joined Frisch Auf! Göppingen, while Borut Mackovsek came to Veszprém. They have two newcomers, Drasko Nenadic from Silkeborg and Rok Ovnicek from Velenje.

 

The “Építők” played in Strasbourg, in the Eurotournoi last time in the bronze game. They suffered a loss from Meshkov Brest and finished the tournament on fourth place.

 

The boys did the final touches on the preparation. They are going to play their last pre-season game on Friday, and next week they are on to the live games in the Hungarian championship against Csurgó.

 

Let’s cheer for the victory of the “Építők” in the official season opener on Friday!

 

Let’s go Veszprém!

 

 

Photo: Dávid Vörös