EHF Champions League – Veszprém beats Montpellier by three goals

Telekom Veszprém beat Montpellier HB by three goals in the first leg of the VELUX EHF Champions League Quarter-final in Hungary on Saturday. The 2016 finalists were ahead for most of the game but Patrice Canayer’s team remained focused all the way and never let the Hungarian powerhouse take full control.

QUARTER-FINAL, FIRST LEG

Telekom Veszprém (HUN) vs Montpellier HB (FRA) 26:23 (13:10)

Having eliminated title holders KS Vive Tauron Kielce, surprise quarter-finalists Montpellier HB travelled to Veszprém to take on the other 2016 finalists as underdogs yet again.

Montpellier coach Patrice Canayer’s battle plan was clear from the first minutes: Make Veszprém suffer hard in attack against his team’s open defence and force the first leg of the quarter-final to be a running game.

But the visitors did not surprise Veszprém coach Xavi Sabaté, who ordered his players to track back as quickly as possible whenever they lost the ball.

Strong start from the visitors

Montpellier showed great skills against the Hungarian side’s defensive wall as they regularly found Ludovic Fabregas, who made no mistakes from the line.

Vincent Gerard made important saves but it hurt Veszprém more when their defensive stalwart Timuzsin Schuch was shown a direct red card for a hit on Diego Simonet as early as the 16th minute.

Despite Gerard continuing to frustrate the home team’s players Veszprém gained momentum. Led by Aron Palmarsson and László Nagy, the Hungarian side pulled ahead by three goals for the first time in the balanced match.

Mirko Alilovic had a lot to do with the home team’s run – after a mediocre first 15 minutes the Croatian goalkeeper kept Montpellier out of the goal for six minutes as Veszprém’s defence started to show its better side.

“We were prepared to contain their fast breaks and overall I am happy with the 23 goals Montpellier scored, but we could have done more in attack,” said Veszprém captain László Nagy. “Our opponents are a very strong team and we have to give our all in France to reach the FINAL4.”