PPD Zagreb will on Tuesday (20.45 CET) in Dom sportova 2 sports hall welcome Metaloplastika in a clash of former Champions League winning teams but also handball legends, now in coaching roles, Veselin Vujovic and Veselin Vukovic who have back in the 80’s playing side by side managed to conquer Europe twice. 

Vujovic and Vukovic are now in quite different situations with Vujovic coaching PPD Zagreb who not only have the highest possible goals in SEHA League but are also competing in EHF Champions League. Vukovic is, on the other hand, coaching Metaloplastika which has this season, after a seven-year long absence, returned to the SEHA League.

PPD Zagreb currently have 2 victories and 1 loss, while Metaloplastika secured 1 victory and 3 losses so far. In their premier encounter of the season, Croatian champions celebrated in Sabac and they will be looking to do the same on Tuesday night in order to boost their confidence levels ahead of what might prove to be the key EHF Champions League encounter of the season against Elverum in Norway on Sunday. 

The match will be streamed on Arena Sport (in Croatia), Arena Sport (in Serbia) and Arena Sport (in Slovakia). 

Veselin Vujovic, PPD Zagreb coach: 
Playing against Metaloplastika will be something special for me. I’ve spent a part of my career there, back when we were competing in the Champions League as well. Nowadays they are a fine, serious team which is playing quick-paced handball and is led by a good coach which means this most definitely won’t be an easy match for us. By that, we also haven’t had a single joint practice since our last match due to the national team week. Win over Metaloplastika would however serve as a good confidence booster ahead of an important match versus Elverum which we’ll play this upcoming weekend. As far as I know, all the players should be ready for the match. Zlatko Horvat is the only one dealing with some minor knee issues but I believe we will all be locked in and ready for the match. 

Ante Gadza, PPD Zagreb player:
We managed to come out on top in our premier match of the season in Sabac but it was far from easy. We didn’t play the way we agreed to and struggled heavily. I honestly hope we’ll play a lot better on Tuesday and eventually celebrate of course. As coach said, we’ll definitely use this match to prepare in the best possible way for what’s waiting for us against Elverum in a few days. 

Veselin Vukovic, Metaloplastika coach:
We expect this to be a good match in Zagreb after delivering a solid outing in our first clash of the season. PPD Zagreb have, however, in the meantime changed their playing style and are now looking much tougher which is why I feel like this will be a really good test for us. We are dealing with some minor injuries at the moment but despite of that I think we will, after a long time, be able to showcase what we’re able to do in front of handball fans in Zagreb and, of course, look to achieve the best possible result in the end.  

Nemanja Gojkovic, Metaloplastika player:
In our premier face-off of the season, we’ve managed to deliver a good resistance and our goal is to deliver an even better outing in Zagreb. Atmosphere in the team is really good at the moment and I hope we will, as a whole, be able to perform well against reigning Croatian champions.