04.01.2008, 03:02
Tough task for Ribarroja

Cementos La Union Ribarroja and Podravka Vegeta will decide on Saturday who will reach third place of Group A.

Tough task for Ribarroja

Cementos La Union Ribarroja will host the Croatian Champions. The Spaniards need to win with at least six goals in order to stay in the race for the third place in Group A.

Dark clouds above Ribarroja

The main problem of the Spanish team is that they are not in their best form right now. In the last round of the Spanish Championship they were defeated by Itxako at home by 23:25. This was their second home defeat this season. So after 11 rounds played, Ribarroja are on fourth position in Spain with little chance to defend their title. In the CL competition the situation is even worse. After four rounds played Ribarroja have four defeats.

But there is also some good news for Gregorio Garcia: Croatian back, Maida Arslanagic, has completely recovered. The experienced Spanish goalkeeper, Maria Sanchez, showed great form at the World Championship in France. Both of them can cause lot of trouble for the Croatian team.

Cautious Croatians

Despite the fact that they have already defeated Ribarroja in Koprivnica by 32:27, the Croatians do not expect an easy job on Spanish soil. In contrary, they took this task very seriously. The club officials decided to take their team to a one week preparation camp in Slovenia. They ended the preparations in the best possible way – by defeating Krim in a friendly match by 36:32.

Podravka Vegeta have 2 points and the opportunity to secure third place in the group which will take them to Cup Winners’ Cup. They need a victory, a draw or a defeat with not more than four gaols to achieve this. The Croatian Champions will start their new handball adventure on Thursday when they will travel to Spain.

The match between Cementos La Union Ribarroja and Podravka Vegeta will be played on Saturday at 16:15. The referees will be Norwegians Kim Andersen and Per Morten Sodal. TVVi and HRT2 will show the match live.

TEXT: Ivan Ambros