Telekom Veszprem celebrate first win in 2017
Telekom Veszprem have in a routine manner managed to reach premier win in 2017 dominantly beating Metalurg 33:21 (15:7). This was their 12th SEHA triumph of the season as they still have theoretical chance to catch the pole position in case Gorenje Velenje stun Vardar at home.
Home-team stars were eager to deliver a good performance in front of their noisy fans. Mirko Alilovic did a great job between posts with 11 saves in the first half only, 14 in total which heavily boosted their chances of enlarging the gap to 8 before the half-time whistle.
Lino Cervar decided to shake things up a bit in the second playing without a goalie but Veszprem’s defence was simply rock-strong today. Macedonians have however managed to come to -5 with home team’s 6:0 series led by Ivancsik, Terzic and Sulic sealing the deal with more than 10 minutes left to play at 26:14.
Sulic and Gajic were leading hosts offensively scoring 6 each and Kuzmanovski on the other side netted 5 for guests.
Xavi
Sabate, Telekom Veszprem coach:
I would like to thank Gergő
Iváncsik, for playing through illness and of course congratulate my whole team for
playing well today, even with younger players. We’re still not at the highest
possible level, certain players are experiencing fatigue issues but that’s
normal at this point of the season. Laci, Sliskovic, Palmarsson and Ugalde are
injured and we are clueless of when will they be available to play again.
Defence was good today, Mirko Alilovic was fantastic. Our goalkeeper coach does
a brilliant job with the goalies. I am happy for our 18 fast-break goals after
hearing rumours that we are a slow team. I was also happy to give a chance to
our young players like Ligetvári who played a good role on WCh surprising many.
We’ve started working with young talents last year and now everyone can see the
result. They played today and will play tomorrow. I am happy for the great work
ethic of the team.
Mirsad
Terzic, Telekom Veszprem player:
Congratulations to Metalurg. It's
hard to play against them as they have a very young and fast team. However we
were good in defence today but it can get even better, faster. We must work on
it, improve from match to match. As Xavi said, we hope we will get through this
period loaded with injuries as soon as possible and keep on delivering good
performances and of course winning matches.
Lino
Cervar, Metalurg Skopje coach:
We were from the very first minute
aware it won’t be easy today. They were a better team. We’ve opened the match
well but started making too many mistakes allowing them to keep the tempo high
as they wanted and grab a win. I hope we’ll be more successful in matches to
come.
Nemanja
Obradovic, Metalurg player:
Congratulations to Veszprem. I can't
say more than my coach already said. Our opponent was better today, they’ve
played in a higher tempo. We weren't as good as we really are today.