After loss against Kristianstad on Sunday concluded PPD Zagreb’s EHF Champions League season, new challenges are already around the corner for Zlatko Saracevic and his boys with Gorenje Velenje coming to visit less than 48 hours after the final whistle against the Swedes. Former PPD Zagreb and Croatian national team coach currently in charge of Gorenje Velenje Zeljko Babic and his players will surely look to take advantage of a tough situation ‘Lions’ are currently dealing with because a win would keep their SEHA Final 4 tournament hopes alive. PPD Zagreb have on the other hand already booked a F4 ticket for themselves but despite of that they’ll most definitely look to end what is now a three-game losing streak for them with losses against Szeged, Vardar and Kristianstad.

Match is scheduled for Tuesday (19.00 CET) and will be broadcasted on ehf TV, Sport TV and Arena Sport channels.

Zlatko Saracevic, PPD Zagreb coach:After a Champions League loss it’s time to get back to SEHA Gazprom League. We have less than 48 hours to prepare for the match against Gorenje which surely won’t be easy as they are still in race for Final Four. Apart from that, they are surely in a better physical condition at the moment with my players feeling the fatigue from Sunday’s match but we’ve got to step up and show fighting spirit. What matters now is to draw conclusions from the match against Kristianstad, deliver our best and win this match.

Tin Lucin, PPD Zagreb player:After yesterday’s loss we obviously didn’t have much time to prepare for the next match which is scheduled already for Tuesday. However, we’ve got to forget about what happened on Sunday, go out there as a team on Tuesday and win the match just like we did in our premier encounter against Gorenje this season.

Zeljko Babic, Gorenje Velenje coach:PPD Zagreb is a club which every year participates in EHF Champions League and has a big tradition. Apart from that, they are currently positioned second on SEHA league’s table and that’s why we’re surely up to a tough match on Tuesday. Zagreb play very well in defense and that’s something we’ll have to prepare for. We must at all costs avoid taking quick shots and patiently wait for good shooting chances. We’ll experience big problems in case we don’t play that way.  

Gregor Potocnik, Gorenje Velenje player:We’re not traveling to Zagreb with a ‘white flag’ of course. What we can expect is a close match and a narrow finish. We were intensively preparing for this match throughout the whole week as we know PPD Zagreb are a very demanding opponent, especially on their court. We will definitely try to show our best. If we manage to play good in attack and deliver a strong, fighting defensive performance I think we’ll be close to them on Tuesday.