Match of the Week - Veszprém hold off feisty Löwen

Veszprém welcomed Rhein Neckar Löwen for the highlight of Round 2 in the VELUX EHF Champions League on Sunday evening.

The home side got off to a great start scoring from the first four attacks, while Mirko Alilovic had two clear saves that sent the 5,000 fans in the jam-packed Veszprém Arena into a frenzy.

It took the Lions six minutes to find the way to the Hungarian net, no wonder coach Gudmundson took his first time-out after 10 minutes at 7:2 down. The Germans woke up, Landin made a couple of nice saves to bring his side back, while László Nagy was sent off for the second time in the 17th minute.

Veszprém, however, maintained their narrow lead with the unstoppable Momir Ilic and Chema Rodriguez, but the Germans fought hard to make the best out of their eight minutes of man advantage in the first half with  Ekhdal Du Rietz and Bjarte Myrhol, the ex-Veszprém pivot, being the protagonists.

Nagy was on target early in the second half for Veszprém to keep the home side up front. Löwen kept the tempo high, tightened their defence and managed to score from fast breaks.

Nervous finish

The focused and organised Germans finally equalised in the 40^th minute thanks to an Isaias Guardiola fastbreak goal, forcing Carlos Ortega to immediately take his time-out.

It was Carlos Ruesga who put Veszprém back in the driver's seat with his first goals for his new club. In the breathtaking atmosphere, Ruesga and Iváncsik scored, but Gensheimer couldn't miss from the penalty line as the battle or nerves continued to the last five minutes.

Du Rietz drew the teams level again and the Germans even had a chance to have the lead for the first time, but the high tempo took its toll at both ends. It was a worthy ending for this outstanding match as 3 seconds from the end Alilovic saved the day for Veszprém with a brilliant save and the game ended 30-29.

“A bit lucky” 

“We prepared well for this game, but teams from the Bundesliga have the advantage of playing such high tempo games every week. It was extremely difficult and I am very happy that we could make our supporters happy,” said top scorer Momir Ilic.

“It was an amazing match. Maybe we were a little bit lucky, but this was an important victory for us against a top club.

“Our defence wasn't as solid as usual especially when it came to one-on-one situations, but we were confident enough to throw back the excellent Löwen in the most important periods,” said coach Carlos Ortega, and László Nagy agreed: “Our strength is our defense, but I and Sulic were sent of two times in the first half, due to which we could not be as tough, as we usually are. I reckon everybody who saw this game had a good time.

Rhein Neckar Löwen coach Gudmur Gudmundsson was gracious in defeat and was happy with his team’s performance: “Congratulations to Veszprém, we played a great game. I am happy that we could climb back from a horrible start, we played well in the second half and could even get a point in the end, which we would have deserved in my opinion.

Veszprém make it two wins from two and are looking to be slowly coming into the form that they need to find if they wish to make it to the VELUX EHF FINAL4, while the German side will have to pick themselves up quickly after notching up just one point from their two outings.