16.10.2014, 05:30
Motor in search of first victory

GROUP D PREVIEW: All three games of Round 4 will be played on Saturday as Ukrainian champions face Aalborg, Szeged receive Kadetten and Dunkerque take on group leaders from Kielce.

Motor in search of first victory

In the Round 4 action in Group D Kielce visit wounded Dunkerque, who still have not found their form. Motor Zaporozhye expect Aalborg in search of their first victory.

The Danish will try to repent for their mistake against Kadetten. They travel to Szeged, where we can expect an interesting encounter. Both are full of confidence and optimism after recent strong performances.  

Dunkerque HB Grand Littoral (FRA) vs KS Vive Tauron Kielce (POL)
Saturday, 18 October at 16:00 local time, live on ehfTV

The French champions are one of the dissapointments of the season so far. With only one victory, battled out in the final minutes against Motor Zaporozhye, they are awaiting high-flying Kielce, who are steamrolling everything in its path.

This will be quite a tough test for Dunkerque. They beat Istres in the league 30:25, but coach Patrick Cazal could not have been too happy. His men trailed by three goals at half-time and only went ahead after a 6:0 run in the 2nd half.

"We are looking for stability. We cannot lower our guard even for a moment, we must be even more vigilant and give more," he said.

Kielce still have a perfect record. In Polish championship they dispatched Górnik Zabrze 42:32. In the VELUX EHF Champions league they gave their fans a bit of a scare in the last match with Motor, but came away with a 20:26 win victory. Everything is clicking for them and they will be confidently looking to another win in Flanders. 

HC Motor Zaporozhye (UKR) vs Aalborg Handball (DEN)
Saturday 18 October at 17:50 local time, live on ehfTV

Aalborg travel to Ukraine in the wake of the home defeat top Szeged. Many things went wrong for Jesper Jensen's men. But the bulk of the blame falls on their leaky 6-0 defence, against which opposition backs roamed freely.

The Danish side have upped their spirits by a comfortable league win over Skanderborg 26:22. Martin Larsen got his come-back after a year long absence caused by a knee injury.

He probably will not yet be one of the key men though. This task falls to Berggren and Tvedten who failed to impress against Szeged. If they regain their form, and Sagosen repeats his performace in Kiev, Motor will be once more in trouble.

The main task for coach Sergey Bebeshko is to prepare his troops for the final minutes, where they have lost all their three games so far. Recent defensive troubles of their opponents spell an opportunity for both Sergei Burka amid the best linesman of the last round Alexander Shevelev.

MOL-Pick Szeged (HUN) vs Kadetten Schaffhausen (SUI)
Saturday 18 October at 18:30 hrs local time, live on ehfTV

This should be an intriguing encounter. Szeged have picked up a vital victory in Denmark in the last round and are on course to be second in the group behing Kielce.

Kadetten are enjoying themselves after first drawing with Aalborg and beating Dunkerque 25:23 in the last round. In both games the Swiss outfit excelled in defence, especially their goalkeeper Nikola Portner. The in-form Szeged backs Dean Bombac and Zsolt Balogh will test him to the max though.

Szeged are favourites and have the home-court advantage. But Kadetten already proved that they will not just roll over and will be a tough nut to crack.

TEXT: Grega Sever / br