Foreshadow: Veszprém - Kiel

Telekom Veszprém hosts THW Kiel in the VELUX EHF Champions League in the Veszprém Aréna on Sunday. The game starts at 5 p.m. and Sport 1 broadcasts live from 4:45 p.m.

 

Kiel was not able to win their last 2 games in the Veszprém Aréna and they are living tough times nowadays as well. We played 16 times against each other and we could celebrate 9 victories while Kiel won 7 games. Interesting fact that the goal difference between the two parties is 0. Both teams scored 450 goals against one another. In last year’s CL series, we met in the Group phase and won back-to-back. On home court, we won 21:19, while in the away leg we triumphed 25:27. This last one was very important because it was the first time we were able to win in Germany against Kiel.

 

 

The Germans finished their run in the best16 last year in the Champions League against Barcelona. They could beat the Spanish team on home court by 2 goals, but they only managed to score 18 goals in the away game and it was not enough for them to advance. Their top scorer last year was Marko Vujin with 72 goals. This season they do not perform well. They only achieved 1 win so far and lost twice. They got defeated by PSG, Kielce while they only won by 1 goal against Aalborg. These result put them to the last sport in Group B. Naturally the Zebras cannot be overseen because everyone has the same history in the group up until the 4th place. Top scorer for them this season is Rune Dahmke with 10 goals.

 

Our next opponent currently stands on the 9th position in the Bundesliga. They played 8 games so far and won 4 out of them while suffering 4 defeats. They lost to Hannover, Melsungen, Wetzlar and Löwen. In their last domestic game, they won against Erlangen 20:31. Their top scorer in the Budesliga is Niclas Ekberg with 46 goals, scoring 26 from penalties.

 

 

There was not a huge movement during the summer at Kiel, only 3 players came while 3 left. Probably the biggest name in their transfer history is Miha Zarabec who they signed from Celje. Besides him came Emil Frend Öfors from Alingsas and Ole Rahmel from Erlangen. We can find players like Ilija Brozovic and Blazenko Lackovic on the departing side. Brozovic went to Hannover, Lackovic signed with Hamburg. Christian Sprenger retired from his active handball career and now functions as assistant coach and youth coordinator of the team. The motor of the team, Domagoj Duvnjak, will not be available for the team until November after healing from knee injury.

 

The ”Építők” prepared for the Champions League with a confident win over Eger during the week. Last weekend they beat Meshkov Brest in Belarus by 3 goals, which makes them still unbeaten this season, and they would like to say that after Sunday too. However, the record champion of Germany can never be underestimated because their roster is made up of many world class players who can always give an extra performance especially on a CL clash.

 

Let’s go Veszprém!

 

 

Photo: Dávid Vörös, EHF Champions League Facebook page