Slovenian vice-champions Gorenje Velenje will in the first round of the second part of SEHA - Gazprom League’s seventh season welcome Croatian vice-champions NEXE. In their premier encounter of the season fans in Nasice witnessed a 24:24 draw. Last season however, in their rookie SEHA season, Gorenje failed to take any points from Slavonia losing 29:27 but took their revenge at home celebrating a 24:20 victory. Results are clearly suggesting that this will be a narrow match but League standings don’t look that way with Slovenians being placed way better - fifth with 17 points. NEXE are currently only eighth with 7 points in what so far looks like it might end up being their worst season in the League.

Meshkov Brest yesterday didn’t manage to stun favored Vardar which is an outcome Gorenje certainly hoped for because it opens a small window for them and a chance to catch-up a bit with a win over Croatian side which surely remembers better days. NEXE are on the other side surely aware that there still are many regular season matches ahead of them and at least a point in Velenje would do them only good in their wishes to run away from the bottom two - Vojvodina and Dinamo.

Match is scheduled for Saturday (20.30 CET) and will be broadcasted on ehf TV, Sport TV (Slovenia) and Arena Sport (Croatia).

Zeljko Babic, Gorenje Velenje coach:
Winter break brought us certain troubles with some players returning injured from national team duties or at least heavily fatigued. We also weren’t able to schedule many trainings in this short period which will surely be a problem in the match against NEXE. Despite of that, I expect my players to be fully focused on this match. We’ll have to be careful and work on the defensive side of the court because NEXE can do quite the damage in the attacking transition.

Alem Toskic, Gorenje Velenje player:
We are well aware of the importance match on Saturday has. We’ve started with preparations for the match and I believe we’re on the right path.

Hrvoje Horvat, NEXE coach:
We remember the tough match we played against them in Nasice. They are a CL-bound team with good 6-0 defense and an excellent goalkeeper. However, they can also run the court good so we must take care of the defensive transition. I’ll insist on my defense to play tough and aggressive which won’t be easy without Marko Mrdjenovic who will miss this match. We’ve also lost Ivan Srsen during the winter break as he is now on loan in Szeged. Other guys went through the preparation period and I only see this match as a start of what will be two interesting months for us I believe.

Mario Tomic, NEXE player:
Gorenje are a really good team. We did not manage to beat them here in Nasice in the first part of the season but we could already then see their good transition and some great national team players. It won’t be easy but I believe we must focus on ourselves.