Celje youngsters give Veszprém hard time

A convincing first half was not enough for Veszprém to seal the win in Celje as the home side never said die and made it a tight game in the second half. It was a tense game with a thrilling endgame after which Veszprém got away with a hard-fought win

Celje Pivovarna Lasko (SLO) vs MKB-MVM Veszprém (HUN) 21:24 (9:14)

Although Veszprém was left without a right back due to injuries of Laszlo Nagy and Christian Zeitz and right wing Peter Gulyas had to move inside to fill the gap the visitors started the game on a high note.

After goal-shy first couple of minutes, which was dominated by tough defences and great saves from both goalkeepers Veszprém took control of the game. Celje did well as far as creating chances was concerned but found it hard to get past the outstanding Roland Mikler, while on the other end Momir Ilic and Peter Gulyas regularly found the net and Veszprém led by five goals at the break.

Celje’s defence toughened up for the second half, Matevz Skok made some excellent saves while Miha Zarabec and Ivan Sliskovic took care of matters at the other end and the home side started to climb back. Slovenian players felt they had a chance to get the best of the visitors and kept defended aggressively.

Once again it was Mikler who kept the visitors’ narrow lead and deputy right back Gulyas (who did not miss a single shot all game long) pulled out a winning performance for Veszprém, but it took quite a fight for the visitors to finally beat the fiesty Celje side.

Ten minutes from the end the home side had a ball to equalise but Mikler denied Zarabec and when Celje finally did score to even the scoreline they did so after an offensive fault. Veszprém struggled to the very last minute to get away with a narrow win, which both teams would have deserved but routine and experience prevailed once again.