Foreshadow: Zaporozhye – Veszprém

MVM Veszprém is going ahead in the Champions League. The Hungarian champion team is going to play against Motor Zaporozhye in the 1/8 final. The first game is going to be held in Ukraine on Saturday, at 5 pm (at 6 pm according to local time). Live broadcast on Sport 1.

 

 

The stakes are higher, the teams cannot afford mistakes, and our team should not take victory over Zaporozhye for granted. The team played in Group D in this CL season counting 7 victories, 1 draw and 2 defeats and ended up as group winners. They won all of their home games and were defeated in tight matches. Then, they played two games against the runner-up of Group C, MVM Veszprém’s last 1/8 final opponent, Naturhouse La Rioja for the qualification to the best 16. They turned out to be better than the Spanish team in both games and finally they will play with the runner-up of Group A MVM Veszprém in order to get into the quarter-final. In CL Barys Pukhouski is their top scorer; he is in the 5th place on the scoring list with his 86 goals which is a remarkable achievement. (Momir Ilic is lagging behind him with 78 goals.) In his last statement the Belarusian playmaker, who had played in Csurgó between 2013 and 2015, said that Veszprém is an outstanding team full of world-class players in every position but his team will not give up on their aims. He believes that best way to play is simply enjoying the match. He said that if they will be able to play according to their own system, they might have the chance to win.

 

 

Coach Xavi Sabaté and Péter Gulyás drew attention to Pukhouskira and the other playmaker, the Lithuanian Aienas Malasinskas and they also highlighted the Russian right back Sergey Shelmenko and the Ukrainian team’s strong defensive strategy.

 

After the trainings, MVM Veszprém departed. The boys stayed in Vecsés and they left from Budapest to Kiev at 7:30am. Today’s program was analyzing videos and training in the evening. Isaias Guardiola did not travel with the team because he had played in the French Championship in February and according to the EHF rules, he cannot play in CL as a player of another team.

 

The team of Veszprém has played a total of 32 CL 1/8 finals counting 18 victories, 1 draw and 13 defeats.

 

 

We have played against teams from 12 countries for the quarter-final qualification. Taking it into account, the Soviet and the Spanish opponents seem to be the most dangerous ones. We gained 10 victories out of 16 matchups.

 

 

The following picture shows the current matchups. One match has been held so far; the game between Wisla Plock and Vardar Skopje ended with a draw (30:30). This is a significant detail for us because if we will be able to defeat Zaporozhye, we would play against the winner of that matchup. But first, we have to concentrate on the upcoming game.

 

 

Photos: ehfcl.com