Veszprém – Vardar pregame statements

On Saturday at 5:30 pm MVM Veszprém is going clash with Vardar Skopje in the second game of Champions League quarter final for the qualification to the Final4 in Cologne. The match will be broadcasted live by Sport1. Before the game we asked head coach Xavi Sabaté, Gergő Iváncsik, Andreas Nilsson and Gasper Marguc.

 

 

Xavi Sabaté: Vardar is an excellent team and from the beginning of the season, with the leadership of their coach, they have every chance of getting to the Final4. We performed great last week and now we have to play well again so that we can travel to Cologne. I’m sure it will be a hard game and there will be extremely hard moments during the match so we have to be very concentrated from the very first second to the last. One of the keys to victory will be our fans; we need them to make such a good atmosphere we never had before.

 

 

Iváncsik Gergő: We reached a great achievement in Skopje but we have to be extremely concentrated again this Saturday. We have to be careful about their fast breaks and focus on our defensive strategy. This part of the season isn’t easy because we have a lot of matches and they are very important matches. During this period the effectiveness of the trainings and the recovery are very important and all of us will try to do everything possible. I think that we are able to become better and better in each game.

 

 

Andreas Nilsson: We had a hard match in Skopje, Vardar is a great team. Their fans were amazing creating such a good atmosphere, they were really loud, and we barely even heard each other on the court. But we could give a great performance and won with three goals mostly thanks to our defensive strategy and our goalkeepers. We can be satisfied with this achievement but we cannot ignore how dangerous they might be in the rematch. We need our fans’ support and we need them to come up with something special for this match. As always, I’m sure they will be fantastic this time. We have to be focused throughout the game and then we can get to the Final4.

 

  

 

Gasper Marguc: Our team performed well in Skopje and there were some outstanding performances by Mirko (Alilovic) in the first half or Aron (Palmarsson) and Momo (Ilic). Our defensive strategy worked well. We are happy about this achievement but of course we are aware of that Vardar is a great team which will fight hard in Veszprém. This three-goal advantage is good for us but it’s not enough to feel reassured. So we have to focus and do everything possible for victory and qualification to Final4.