Veszprem cruise past Zagreb booking Champions League QF place alongside Vardar

Veszprem

EHF Champions League Round of 16 is now behind us and SEHA Gazprom League can be proud saying it has 2 of its representatives among Europe's best 8. Telekom Veszprem and Vardar will in a bit more than 2 weeks go to battle to reach EHF CL Final 4 tournament in Cologne while PPD Zagreb and Meshkov will, after bring knocked out of the competition, have more time to focus and prepare for both SEHA F4 and domestic championships.

In SEHA Gazprom Last 16 matchup between PPD Zagreb and Telekom Veszprem Hungarians have at home, in second leg, managed to crown narrow 1-goal win from Zagreb with a dominant 29:19 win to put them 52:41 up on aggregate. Trio Ilic-Marguc-Ugalde was once again leading European vice-champions scoring 5 each while on the other side Horvat, Miklavcic and Pavlovic netted 3 each. Veszprem will in quarter-finals face French Montpellier whose self-confidence must be sky high after a stunning 61:54 (agg.) win over reigning champions Kielce in eighth-finals.

Meshkov Brest were on a verge of making another big surprise of eighth-finals round after falling only 3 goals short against German Flensburg in an unexpectedly close second leg face-off in Germany (26:28, 51:54 on aggregate). Even Stojkovic' 8 goals were not enough for Meshkov to clinch a QF spot in what appears to be their true European breakout season.

Second SEHA Gazprom representative in quarter-finals will be Vardar who have already secured a QF place finishing on top of elite group B. In order to, for the first time ever, reach F4 in Cologne they will have to be better than Flensburg.

Quarter-final first leg matches are scheduled for April 19 - 23 and second leg will be played from April 26 - 30.

EHF Champions League quarter-final matchups:

Kiel - Barcelona, Flensburg - Vardar, Szeged - PSG, Telekom Veszprem - Montpellier.