Foreshadow: Veszprém – Vardar

 

Telekom Veszprém hosts HC Vardar in the next round of the VELUX EHF Champions League in the Veszprém Arena. The game will be broadcasted by Sport 1.

 

 

Vardar Skopje belongs to the top teams in Europe. We could see that in our SEHA League years, that they were going step by step, and they could even beat us in the final in our last season there. It was our last encounter with the Macedonians. Momir Ilic and Timur Dibirov scored 5 goals each in the 21:26 game.

 

Speaking of SEHA League, Vardar won the series again last year. They won the regular season easily by overtaking Zagreb by 14 points. They had 17 victories and 1 draw. They played against Meshkov Brest in the first semifinal, where they won 33:24. They could win in the final as well, although a bit harder. The final result was a 24:22 victory for Vardar against Zagreb and Skopje managed to keep the trophy at home. Their top scorer last year was Timur Dibirov with 77 goals, behind him the now Kielce player Luka Cindric came with 66 goals. This year they are doing well again by winning 4 games out of 4.

 

Vardar could not defend their Champions League title last year, as they have lost the semifinal against Montpellier in Cologne. In the bronze game, they lost again to PSG. They left Cologne disappointed and they did the reverse of their last year’s performance. In this season they are flawless so far. They could take revenge for the Final4 semifinal against Mintpellier and managed to win in France by 3 goals. In the second round they won again, this time against Kristianstad, by 8 goals. Their top scorer in these 2 games is Ivan Cupic with 13 goals.

 

 

Vardar had some big changes this summer, as many important players have left the club. Joan Canellas and Jorge Maqueda left to Szeged, Luka Cindric left to Kielce, Mijajlo Marsenic plays in Füchse Berlin now, Ilija Abutovic signed with Löwen, while Árpád Sterbik came to Veszprém. They signed Stas Skube and Sergei Gorbok from Szeged, Dmitrii Kiselev from St.Petersburg, Dejan Milosavljev from Partizan and Gleb Karalash from Magdeburg.

 

The “Építők” played at home against Balatonfüred the last time. They managed to win 32:24 out of which Manuel Strlek and Máté Lékai scored 5 goals each. They played against Barcelona last weekend in the Champions League and lost 31:28. With this defeat our team currently has a loss and a win.

 

A very dangerous Skopje come on Saturday, because everybody thinks their roster got weaker, however they lead the group undefeated and managed to beat title holders Montpellier in France. The boys count on the cheer from their Supporters, which is a huge help in every CL game, especially in a clash like this.

 

Let’s go Veszprém!

 

 

Fotó: Vörös Dávid