Foreshadow: Veszprém – Flensburg

 

Telekom Veszprém will host SG Flensburg-Handewitt on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in the second leg of the VELUX EHF Champions League quarterfinal. The game will be broadcasted live by Sport 1.

 

 

The first leg of this CL clash was held last Wednesday, when Telekom Veszprém visited the reigning German champions. Flensburg started the game much better and in the first few minutes, they took a 3:0 lead right away. Veszprém was not shaken by this and turned the game around for the 13th minute, and did not let this lead slip away. To the half time, the home team could fight back to a 15:15 draw, but then came the second half and Roland Mikler. In the first 15 minutes of the second period Flensburg could only score one goal, and Mikler had a save percentage of almost 80%. This 15 minutes breakdown of the Germans was enough for Veszprém to score seven unanswered goals. This difference became almost permanent for the “Építők”, and at the end they managed to win this important away game by six goals. One of the top scorer in attack was Andreas Nilsson with six goals.

 

Flensburg played a mid-week match in the Bundesliga against Leipzig, which they won 27:21. Marius Steinhauser scored eight goals, while Jim Gottfrisson scored six times. Our next opponent is still in the lead in the German domestic lead with Rasmus Lauge Schmidt being their top scorer with 115 goals.

 

 

The roster of the Bundesliga champions went through quite a big change over the summer. Six players left, while the same amount arrived to the club. The departing players are Thomas Mogensen to Skjern, Jacob Heinl to Ribe-Esbjerg, Kevin Moller to Barcelona, Henrik Toft Hansen to PSG while Mattias Andersson retired and Kentin Mahé left to Veszprém. On the arriving side there are Benjamin Buric from Wetzlar, Torbjorn Bergerud from Holstebro, Johannes Golla from Melsungen, Simon Hald from Danish side Aalborg, Magnus Jondal and Goran Sogard Johanessen from the Danish GOG.

 

Telekom Veszprém did not play a Hungarian championship game this week, so they could focus only on tomorrow’s game. The last K&H League match of Veszprém was against Mezőkövesd on home court, 19 April. During the 37:22 victory, Dejan Manaskov scored eight times.

 

 

Flensburg could only win one game out of their Champions League encounters in Veszprém, back in 2001 in the Cup Winner’s Cup quarterfinals. We hope that this streak continues on Saturday, and our 11th consecutive victory will qualify us into the VELUX EHF Final4 for the fifth time in six years. The Hungarian record champions would go to Cologne with a five goals loss, or even a six goals loss with the Germans scoring 27 or less goals. If Flensburg manages to win 28:22, the decision would go on to penalties.

 

However the boys are determined to win at home, as they have been preparing to this game the whole week for this important clash. We would like to ask our Fans to come in red clothing to the game and support the team with everything they got!

 

Let’s go Veszprém!

 

 

Photo: Dávid Vörös