In the last round of the 2014 CL the MKB-MVM Veszprém lost its first match in the season against the Rhein-Neckar Löwen (32:25). More information about the match can be found here. The immaculate balance is a thing of the past. To get the first place of the group it is enough for us to play one drawn game in the last two rounds. At first the Celje will come to us and then we will travel to Montpellier.

 

 

The Löwen kept its chance for the second place of the group with its victory alive but to make this dream come true they also have to win the last two matches. It is an interesting news that after their victory against Veszprem they lost a match against the Erlangen (27:25), who stands on the 15th place of the Bundesliga.

 

Celje Pivovarna Lasko - Montpellier Agglomeration HB 27:30 (14:10)

 

The match of the Slovenian and the French team was about the fight for the fourth position. The Montpellier arrived with a two-score advantage but for the Celje the memory of victory against Löwen and the fact that they were playing at home seemed to be advantageous. In the first half the scores were nearly equal but after the Celje stepped on it and the Montpellier could only score two goals in the last 10 minutes. Miha Zarabec lead the home team, but in the second half the visitor team with the leadership of Vid Kavtičnik and Issam Tej became stronger. They first made the scores equal then they took the lead. The French team won the match deservedly as they played very well in the second half and they strengthened their position to get among the 16 best teams of the CL.

 

Scorers:

Celje Pivovarna Lasko: Zarabec 11, Janc 6, Miklavcic 3, Sliskovic 3, Poteko 2, Blagotinsek and Kodrin 1-1

Montpellier Agglomeration HB: Kavticnik 7, Tej 5, Gajic, Guigou, Simonet 4-4, Grebille 3, Dolenec, Gaber and Saidani 1-1

 

 

Chekhovskie Medvedi – Vardar Skopje 34:39 (16:19)

 

The Medvedi wanted to get its first victory in the CL while the goal of Vardar was to keep the second position. It was already clear at the beginning that there will be many goals on this match (as Medvedi matches usually are like that). This time the number of the scores could have been even more but they only could score four goals from nine penalties. The Vardar dominated the entire match but with the leadership of Dereven (who scored 13 goals) the Bears tried to keep pace with the visitors led by Toskic, Gorbok, and Karacic. The visitor team has won in the end with 5 goals. Alexander Derewen (Medvedi) with his 56 goals got to the third place of the scorers-list of the CL. On the first place is currently Kiril Lazarov (Barcelona) with 64 goals, on the second Momir Ilic (Veszprém) with 58 goals.

 

Scorers:

Chekhovskie Medvedi: Dereven 13, Zhitnikov 8, Kotov 6, Furtsev 4, Izmailov 2, Ostashchenko 1

Vardar Skopje: Karacic 8, Gorbok és Toskic 6-6, Dibirov és Dujshebaev 5-5, Shishkarev 3, Brumen 2, Abutovic, Markovic, Pribak and Stoilov 1-1

 

The actual position of our group can be found here. According to this the names of qualified teams are already fixed only the placing is in question. The Celje and the Medvedi are already eliminated for sure. It doesn’t matter what Celje and what Montpellier do on their following matches the French team would qualify for the next round anyway because of its victories againts Slovenians. We hope that Veszprém will win against Celje at home and  get the first place in their groups. The Löwen and the Vardar have to win the next matches in order to be able to fight against each other in Mannheim in the last round for the second place of the group. The Champions League will continue in the mid-February.

 

Combinations of the next (ninth) round:

15.02.2015 MKB-MVM Veszprém - Celje Pivovarna Lasko

15.02.2015 Chekhovskie Medvedi – Rhein-Neckar Löwen

15.02.2015 Vardar Skopje - Montpellier Agglomeration

 

Photos: Susanne Schauer and ehfcl.com