Can Gorenje secure a place among SEHA F4 candidates?
Сможет ли «Горенье» стать кандидатом на «финал четырех» SEHA-лиги?
Another duel between teams looking to catch a place on F4 tournament in SEHA Gazprom League is ahead of us with Slovenian vice-champions Gorenje Velenje traveling to Belarus to meet Meshkov Brest on Saturday (17.30 local time). This will for both teams be an important match in this part of the season because three points would really help them stay in the race for final tournament.
Meshkov were close to three points against Zagreb on Wednesday but Yurynok was not precise in final seconds and it the end it was just a draw. Belarusian team is under a bit of pressure because only victory enlarges the gap between them and Slovenian representatives on League’s table.
Gorenje on the other hand have two games less than Meshkov and with maximum points they would jump over Belarusian side which means that even a point would bring Slovenians a lot to be happy about.
Sergey Bebeshko, Meshkov coach:
Most of Gorenje’s
players are Slovenians. Team is a good mix of youth and experienced players. Team
is stronger than last season with Toskic and Brumen on board. These two have
leading roles. They play good 6-0 defense and know how to change it to 3-3.
They do not participate in EHF Champions League so they can prepare more
seriously for SEHA Gazprom League games and by that they will surely come to
Brest willing to win and fight. We must win all home games now. Ostroushko,
Vukic and Babichev have some problems with injures but I hope they'll be able
to play.
Dzianis Rutenka, Meshkov player:
This will
be our third game this week and it is hard to play in this rhythm. Last match
against PPD Zagreb was quite exhausting and we did not have enough time to
recover. Gorenje had a bit more time to prepare for the match but we’d like to
go to our national teams next week in a good mood.
Borut Plaskan, Gorenje coach:
Maybe the
fact that Meshkov is a really good team is not well known but they did show their
quality in EHF Champions League beating Rhein Neckar Löwen. We know their team
very well. They have good players on every position. We will try to bring our
game and take every chance to win this game.
Matjaz Brumen, Gorenje player:
We know
what we can expect in Belarus. In Brest we want to deliver our best game. I believe
in our team. Our attack was not on the highest level in any of our previous
matches but I expect it to start working out much better. We hope to surprise
Meshkov with a great performance.