Both Metalurg and Celje hope to end negative streaks

И Металург и Целје се надеваат на прекинување на едномесечниот пост во СЕХА лигата

Metalurg - Tatran

Metalurg and Celje both hope to end their month-long period without a win in SEHA Gazprom League. Their duel in Skopje on Thursday (17.45 CET)will be their first encounter in regional competition.

Metalurg's last victory in SEHA Gazprom League was achieved at home against Tatran on September 18th followed by two losses and a draw. In EHF Champions League they have in group Group C managed to beat La Rioja and after that they've lost two games in a row.
Celje on the other hand did not manage to catch a win against Vardar, Veszprem or Meshkov in SEHA League and on the side they also have bad series in CL. That means Slovenian team will do everything to take important points from Skopje to stay in F4 race.
Metalurg have injury problems with Mladenovic, Obradovic and Dragas probably ending up sidelined for the encounter. By all them season is also over for Marcec due to ligament injury.

Lino Cervar, Metalurg coach:
Celje is a tricky team that plays fast, modern handball. Slovenian transition is excellent. We've traveled a lot lately, but I think that despite of the strong pace we will still manage to prepare for this game. I think that this is a way to build a strong team and produce good players. All our international players are injured, we are playing only with Macedonian players. Mladenovic will probably have to undergo a surgery, and Obradovic isn’t fit yet. 

Marko Neloski, Metalurg player:
We are not familiar with Celje as an opponent. We’ve never played against this Slovenian team which is a mix of young, not very experienced players, and older players with rich experience. They play very fast, fast in transition and have very good technics. We will have to resist their pace and if we succeed to manage this part of their game and play as we did in the first half of the match against Montpellier, I think that we will have good result.

Branko Tamse, Celje PL coach:
Metalurg has a young and very homogeneous team. At home they always play with some extra motivation, what usually creates troubles for majority of teams they play against. It is clear they have combined this team with clear vision with many players born in 1994 or even younger. That means this team is always hungry for success and we can see that in their results. Their performance sometimes has some ups and downs, they are a young team which is experiecing some injury problems. That’s why some of their latest results are not showing the right picture of this team. We are aware that they will do all they can to beat Celje, but of course, we are travelling there with the same goal - to win in Skopje. Of course we know that this is not going to be an easy task. We have to be well prepared for the match to be able to win there but of course we are travelling there wishing to get three points.

Luka Zvizej, Celje PL player:
For this match the main advantage of Metalurg's team is their home court where they play really good. They are dangerous for all opponents and their results are proving that. One of our main advantages is that we are travelling there without any pressure and we have had some time to prepare for the match. We want to win in Skopje but we are aware that it's going to be tough to achieve this win.