Meshkov need points if they want to avoid Vardar in semi-final

Gorenje Velenje - Meshkov Brest

Meshkov Brest have already secured Final 4 placement but in a match against Gorenje Velenje scheduled for Tuesday (18.00 local time) at home they’ll look to grab some points in order to avoid finishing fourth in the regular season standings which would mean playing Vardar in Final4 semis. Gorenje Velenje will on the other hand finish the season on fifth place which means coach Babic can look to build up form in Belarus for what’s waiting for him and his players in Slovenian championship and Cup in the rest of the season, especially after a tough loss against Koper a few days ago. Meshkov will once again miss some of their key players like Nikulenkau, Shylovich, Rutenka and Horak.

Match will be broadcasted on ehf TV, BLRTV (Belarus), Sport TV (Slovenia) and Arena Sport channels.

Sergey Bebeshko, Meshkov Brest coach:
Slovenians lost all chances of qualifying for the final tournament just last round which says quite much of their quality. They are displaying good performances lately playing really confidently. In our premier encounter of the season in Velenje we suffered a tough loss but I can say we learned a lot from it and we’ll try to take revenge at home. Many key players will however miss the match like Nikulenkau, Shylovich, Rutenka and Horak which means Budzeika, Vukic and Prodanovic will, as well as Shkurinsky who is returning from an injury, have more minutes on Tuesday.

Alexander Shkurinskiy, Meshkov Brest player:
As usually, we’ll go for a win, especially after losing by a big margin in Velenje. We’ve already secured a place on F4 for ourselves but this surely doesn’t mean we can be relaxed on Tuesday. I assure you we’ll fight for three new points.

Zeljko Babic, Gorenje Velenje coach:
Meshkov are a great team and we’re surely up to a tough one on Tuesday. We’re dealing with some injury problems at the moment but we must enter the match fully focused and play best we can. Good defense is a ‘must’ in case we want to achieve a good result.

Jan Tajnik, Gorenje Velenje player:
After a tough Slovenian championship defeat I expect us to rise and deliver a strong outing. We must do everything we can to win the match and get back on the winning tracks. Meshkov have a good team. In our premier encounter of the season we’ve reached a quite dominant win at home which means they’ll surely look to take revenge.