Crunch time for Hungary as new coaches lock horns

The crunch game in Chekhov will be the first for the Russian and third for the Hungarian national team coaches at the helm of their respective teams: Dmitry Torgovanov took the post from Oleg Kuleshov after the World Championship, while Talant Dujshebaev has been leading Hungary since the resignation of Lajos Mocsai. The two new-fledged coaches have a huge match in front of them.

Russia take on Hungary without two key players Pavel Atman and Sergey Gorbok but Sergey Shelmenko returns from injury. However, new coach Dmitry Torgovanov claims on the back of his team’s 10-day training camp that Hungary are the favourites for both matches.

Dujshebaev’s tight schedule

A long training camp would have come handy for Dujshebaev as well, but the Hungarian national team coach can only work with his players for two days.

”We are facing an extremely dangerous opponent after very little time to prepare,” said Dujshebaev, who only joined his team four days prior to the game in Chekhov as his team Kielce took part in the Polish cup final while Veszprém and Szeged played out their cup final in Hungary.

”Unfortunately the Hungarian cup final brought a change to the national team. Péter Gulyás strained his waist against and will miss the game against Russia,” explained Dujshebaev, who has no other notable sidelined players.

Two new coaches clash

While Thursday’s clash will be the first match for Torgovanov, Dujshebaev have already led his Hungarian team to two victories in Group 5 after he was appointed as head coach after the resignation of Lajos Mocsai.

Hungary currently lead the group having narrowly beaten Portugal at home and Ukraine away, while Russia won in Portugal. It is likely that after this week’s matches we will have a clearer picture of the Group as the two leaders meet again on Saturday in Veszprém while Portugal and Ukraine also play their double-header this week.

The second clash between the teams on Saturday at 16:10 hrs local time will be shown live on ehfTV.com.