We are through the seventh round of the Champions League and the MKB-MVM Veszprém is still leading the Group C after defeating the young but extremely talented Chekhovskie Medvedi (38:31) last week in Veszprém. Details about the match can be found in our previous article.

 

 

On the other two matches of the group the fight was going on for the best possible positions. The Vardar Skopje and the Rhein-Neckar Löwen wanted to maintain their mathematical chance for the first place in the group, or at least for the second. The Celje and the Montpellier were and are still competing for the fourth place although before the match of the French team they had a chance also for a better place.

 

Rhein-Neckar Löwen - Celje Pivovarna Lasko 34:32 (19:17)

 

The Celje arrived to the Macedonian capital with high hopes because of their victory against Löwen in the previous round. For the first period of the match a quick pace was characteristic, the teams payed less attention to the defense. The home team could not gain a significant advantage against the Slovenian, altough Árpád Sterbik defended well. The Slovenian team with the leadership of Ivan Sliskovic and Miha Zarabec kept the chance alive to get a score. In the second half due to Timur Dibirov and Igor Karačić the Skopje was able to increase its advantage, but this advantage did not last long due to the goals of Luka Žvižej. The strength of the visitor team was gone in the end and Sergei Gorbok and Alem Toskic took the advantage of this situation in the endgame. The Vardar victory with two goals advantage means that the Macedonians retained the second place before the Löwen and they need only one more point to get on. On the other hand the Celje will have to fight hard against the Montpellier in the next round, because one of these two teams will probably be the fourth team that will get on.

 

Scorers:

Vardar Skopje: Dibirov 7, Karacic 6, Gorbok and Toskic 5-5, Brumen and Dujshebaev 3-3, Chipurin 2, Lazarov, Markovic and Shishkarev 1-1

Celje Pivovarna Lasko: Sliskovic 9, Zarabec 6, Zvizej 5, Janc 4, Razgor 3, Ivic, Kodrin, Miklavcic, Poteko and Zuran 1-1

 

 

Montpellier Agglomeration - Rhein-Neckar Löwen 29-33 (14-18)

 

The two teams arrived at the meeting with identical number of scores and both of them were fighting the third place at least. The Löwen wanted to win after its defeat in Slovenia, while the Montpellier prepared for the next victory after its victory against Medvedi. The German team played much better than previous week, they completed their attacks accurately with an emphasis on tough defense. They dominated the whole game mostly due to Uwe Gensheimer and Kim Ekdahl du Rietz. On the other side Dragan Gajic and Mathieu Grebille were trying to make every effort in order to close up. But the difference of four goals remained until the end, so the Löwen gained its first away in the Champions League.

 

Scorers:

Montpellier Agglomeration: Gajic 8, Grebille 6, Kavticnik 5, Guigou 4, Tej 3, Gaber 2, Saidani 1

Rhein-Neckar Löwen: Gensheimer 7,Ekdahl du Rietz 6, Groetzki and Schmid 5-5, Reinkind 4, Petersson 3, Guardiola Villaplana 2, Myrhol 1

 

 

The actual standing of our group can be found here. According to these if the MKB-MVM Veszprém will manage to play at least a drawn game in Mannheim, they will surely go on to the next round on the first place of this group.

 

Matches of the next (eighth) round:

06/12/2014 Rhein-Neckar Löwen - MKB-MVM Veszprém

06/12/2014 Chekhovskie Medvedi – Vardar Skopje

06/12/2014 Celje Pivovarna Lasko - Montpellier Agglomeration

 

Photos: Zsolt Melczer and facebook.com/ehf.champions.league