Foreshadow: Veszprém – Kielce

 

Telekom Veszprém starts its VELUX EHF Champions League run against PGE Vive Kielce with the Match of the Week on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. The game will be broadcasted on Sport 1 from 5:30 p.m.

 

 

The rivalry between Veszprém and Kielce is a long one, and the reasons are probably clear for everyone. Now the two teams start a new chapter because they were drawn into the same group in the Champions League. This game was nominated for the Match of the Week by EHF, which gives a bit more spice to this encounter. The two parties have met last season in the group phase as well and they managed to play two high quality games. The first match was held in Kielce, where a very close game was over in a 32:32 draw, thanks to the last second goal of Gasper Marguc. Top scorer of the game was Alex Dujshebaev with 7 goals, while behind him was Kent Robin Tonnesen with 6. The second leg in Veszprém resulted a 31:26 victory for Veszprém. Our top scorer was Andreas Nilsson, who scored 8 goals.

 

Kielce won the Polish league hence they qualified for the CL, after defeating Wisla Plock once again. The renewed Ekstraklasa is already on and Kielce managed to win 3 games out of 3. Of course Plock is closely behind with the same amount of points. Kielce played on Tuesday against Arka Gdynia and won 31:40.

 

 

The Polish champions were in Group B last season, where they have finished on 5th spot. They had six victories, three draws and five losses out of 14 games. With their 5th position they qualified for the best 16, where they met with the current Bundesliga champions Rhein-Neckar Löwen. Löwen arrived for the away game with their backup team, no wonder the Polish side won by a huge margin, 41:17, and decided the outcome on the first game. They won again in the second leg 30:36 and qualified for the quarterfinals where they met with PSG. This clash seemed a bit more difficult for Kielce and they got knocked out eventually. They lost in the first game by 6 goals then in the second leg by 3 goals. This was the final destination for our next opponent.

 

For the new season 6 new players arrived and 5 left the club. The biggest name on the arrival side is probably Champions League winner Croatian center back, Luka Cindric, but Vladimir Cupara, Angel Fernandez Perez, Arciom Karalok, Uladzislau Kulesh and Arkadiusz Moryto continues his career in Kielce. Mateusz Kus left for Motor Zaporozhye, Manuel Strelk signed with Veszprém, Darko Djukic will play in Brest, while Slavomir Smal and Karol Bielecki retired.

 

The ”Építők” played against Budakalász in the K&H League last Saturday. The game started a bit shaky but at the end Veszprém could win in a confident 27:38 game. Top scorer of the game was Manuel Strlek with 8 goals, behind him was Dragan Gajic with 7.

 

The boys are counting on our Fans’ support in the new Champions League season as well, and they are working hard to correct their mistake they did last year and to show that they still belong to the elite of European handball.

 

Let’s go Veszprém!

 

 

Photo: Dávid Vörös, Kielce