2025-09-27 20:56

In front of sparse stands, our first group-stage match began at 8 p.m. local time – 7 p.m. back home. Yesterday, an Al Ahly–Sydney Uni clash had already taken place, ending in a 41–14 victory for the Egyptians, giving our coaching staff plenty to analyze overnight.

We started the match with the lineup of Descat, Zein, ElDeraa, Remili, Gáncs-Pető, and Adel, with Mikael Appelgren in goal. Petrus was seated on the bench. Adel opened the scoring after a nice assist.

The game began somewhat sluggishly, and after ten minutes the scoreboard showed a 5–7 Veszprém lead – mainly exposing weaknesses in our defense. With Gáncs-Pető as a disruptor, we even experimented with a 5–1 defensive setup. After 15 minutes, Sydney called a timeout, and we were able to reorganize. The usual line change followed, immediately bringing tighter defense and more dynamic play. We sped up, defended more aggressively, and the game shifted toward the expected reality: the gap widened steadily. At halftime, we already led 10–27.

Sydney Uni started the second half, while Molnár Robin and Bjarki Már Elísson also came on for us. By the 35th minute, the skill gap became even more evident, and the margin grew wider – which was to be expected after their performance against Al Ahly the day before. Then came Elísson’s moments: he scored five goals almost in a row at the start of the half. By the 50th minute, the exhausted Sydney side had already reached the same score as the previous evening: 14–41.

Meanwhile, Gáncs-Pető Máté tirelessly fired in goals from the right side with his right hand – notching his sixth, an impressive extra contribution. Elísson netted our 50th goal, and the final score was 15–51.

The Man of the Match award went to Hugo Descat, presented by Sporting Director László Nagy.

Sydney Uni - One Veszprém HC 15-51 (10-27)

One Veszprém HC: Appelgren, Corrales - Petrus, Martinovic 5, Descat 9, Hesham 3, Elísson 8, Ligetvári, Cindric 3, Remili 3, ElDeraa 1, Pechmalbec 5, Gáncs-Pető 8, Adel 2, Molnár 3, Zein 1.

Sydney Uni: Reid, Szalkucki – Delpire 4, Sulc 1, Carriere 1, Clowes, Duarte 1, Cherif 4, Serrano, Messerschmidt, Fallah, Torjusen, Gregorio, Coindevel, Langridge, Artigues.

7-m penalties: 2/4 vs. 4/4.
Suspensions: 6 min vs. 6 min.

STATEMENTS

Ahmed Hesham
Of course, the first match is never easy. As Pasqui said, we have to take things seriously and keep moving forward. It’s never simple to adapt to a new team. I knew Yehia, Ali, and Adel, but here in Veszprém there are many other players from different countries. In the national team it’s easier because we all know each other well. Here it’s much more international — more nationalities, different styles — so we’re still building that team chemistry.

Xavier Pascual
First of all, I want to thank my team. Today they played seriously and, of course, showed respect to Sydney University. I’m very satisfied with everyone’s performance, congratulations to my guys.
You can’t win a match in just 10 minutes — that’s important; we have 60 minutes to do that. At the beginning, I think it was normal to have only a 4–6 goal lead, and I wasn’t worried about the early mistakes. What matters is how we reacted and stayed focused throughout the whole game.

#RedUnited #HandballCity #StrongerTogether

MEGOSZTÁS