03.03.2011, 11:54
Császár to steal points in France

Before the decisive match against Montpellier, Veszprém’s back player Gábor Császár explains why he wants to avoid second place in Group B.

Császár to steal points in France

One round before the end of the Group Phase in the VELUX EHF Men's Champions League, Hungarian champions MKB Veszprém KC are the team with the highest amout of points on the bank of all 24 teams. In the upcoming match against Montpellier in France this weekend the winners of the group will be decided.

In an interview with ehfCL.com, back court player Gábor Császár talked about his return home, the past performance of his team and about the upcoming decisive match.

ehfCL.com: After years of playing in Denmark and France you transferred to Veszprém. How does it feel to play in Hungary again?

Gábor Császár: It was a huge experience for me to come back to Hungary. I left the country at very young age, but my family is very important to me. So from a career wise point of view, going to Veszprém was a good decision. At the same time I can now live my private life a bit more effective.

ehfCL.com: What was the key to last week’s victory in Kolding?

Gábor Császár: We were well prepared and performed in a better form than the Danish players that day. I remember that back in October in the first encounter in Veszprém the Danish players were much better, and that was a much more exciting match.

Now in Kolding we controlled the match from beginning to the end. Some of our players even showed extraordinary performances. Right after the World Championship it was a bit harder, because the players had to get used to each other again. But now everything is back to good, the team is mentally working together again.

ehfCL.com: In the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League, Veszprém is leading Group B before the last round. Retrospectively, do you think your season would have been this successful?

Gábor Császár: We knew that it would be an extremely strong group. We also knew that we could be able to qualify to the Last 16 from a favourable place that would put us in a nice position for the next round.

But I have to admit that I did not believe that we would be ahead of Hamburg at the end of the Group Phase. We also thought of Montpellier as very strong, maybe we expected to be before Kolding.

It is a great pleasure that we can step on court on Sunday and fight for first place in the group against Montpellier, knowing that we already have second place in our pocket.

It will be a very important match on Sunday, because we want to stay on first place.

Looking at the other groups, we have realized that we could get very strong opponents in the Last 16 if we finish on second place in our group.

ehfCL.com: What do you expect from the “Group Final” against Montpellier?

Gábor Császár: Yes, it will be one of our most difficult matches in this season. We are aware of the fact that Montpellier are in an excellent form. In Veszprém we could only win by one goal against them, so we need to have full focus. We have to play even a bit better that we did at our strong performance in Denmark last week.

The French team has a quite unusual and physically powerful 3-2-1 defence system. It is very difficult to prepare against it. But still we would like to steal at least one point from the match.

The top quality clash between group leaders Veszprém and the French runners-up on Sunday evening will be broadcast live on our free-of-charge web stream on ehfTV.com.

VELUX EHF Men's Champions League, Group Phase, Round 10
Sunday 06 March 2011, 17:30 (local time)
Montpellier Agglomeration HB (FRA) vs. MKB Veszprém KC (HUN)

ehfTV.com is the official Internet TV platform of the European Handball Federation and offers free live streaming as well as a video on demand service.

TEXT: Ildikó Balogh (handball.hu)