Champions Montpellier head to Barça in search of elusive points

Champions Montpellier head to Barça in search of elusive points

After three rounds played in the VELUX EHF Champions League, three teams have yet to lose a point: Vardar in Group A as well as Paris and Szeged in Group B.

No wonder, then, that Match of the Week will travel to Skopje on Saturday to witness whether the 2017 winner can carry on their winning streak against Rhein-Neckar Löwen.

On the opposite end of the tables, three teams still remain without points. This will still be the case for Motor Zaporozhye on Sunday evening as the Ukrainian side lost in Flensburg on Wednesday, but for title-holders Montpellier and IFK Kristianstad, now would be a good time to get points on the board, before their opponents get out of reach in the race for the Last 16.

GROUP A
Match of the Week - HC Vardar (MKD) vs Rhein-Neckar Löwen (GER)
Saturday, 6 October, 17:30 local time, live on ehfTV.com

• The two sides have met in the group phases of the past four VELUX EHF Champions League seasons, with Vardar taking five wins, Löwen two, while the last game ended in a 21:21 draw
• the Macedonian side are trying to emulate their best start ever in the competition, four consecutive wins, which they achieved in the 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons
• Vardar have the best defensive record in the group with only 74 goals conceded in three games, while Löwen’s is the second worst with 96
• left wing Jerry Tollbring and back Alexander Petersson will make their return to the team after missing last week’s Brest game, while former Vardar player Ilija Abutovic has a torn calf muscle and will miss the game against his former team

HC Meshkov Brest (BLR) vs Telekom Veszprém HC (HUN)
Saturday, 6 October, 16:00 local time, live on ehfTV.com

• Displeased by the home court loss against Vardar, Veszprém’s management has sacked Ljubomir Vranjes as coach. The Hungarian powerhouse will be led by Istvan Gulyas in Belarus
• the two sides have met only twice at this level, in last season’s group phase, with Veszprém taking both wins, 29:26 and 34:22
• Brest have two consecutive home games, against Veszprém and Barça Lassa, which could define their ambitions for this season
• there is little room for error for the Hungarian side, who lost two of the first three games of the season, their worst start in the competition for 23 years

PGE Vive Kielce (POL) vs IFK Kristianstad (SWE)
Saturday, 6 October, 16:00 local time, live on ehfTV.com

• Kielce will hope Alex Dujshebaev can pick up where he left off against Montpellier, where he scored 10 goals, to climb to the top of the top goal scorer ranking, with 24 goals in the first three games of the season
• 21-year old left wing Arkadiusz Moryto scored 17 goals in Kielce’s Polish league win against Piotrkowiec, 45:32 on Tuesday
• the Swedish side must bounce back from their worst loss in the VELUX EHF Champions League, 44:25, against Barça Lassa, and their worst start to the competition
• Kristianstad have won only one game of their four encounters against Kielce, but the Swedish side lost both times they played in Kielce, 35:27 (2015) and 38:28 (2016)

Barça Lassa (ESP) vs Montpellier HB (FRA)
Saturday, 6 October, 16:00 local time, live on ehfTV.com

• Barcelona will seek to avenge their painful loss from last season’s Last 16 defeat against Montpellier, when the French side eliminated them 56:55 on aggregate
• Montpellier’s three-defeat start of the season is the worst by a title holder in the VELUX EHF Champions League
• the Spanish champions have the best attacking record in the competition, with 109 goals scored in three games and displayed their fantastic offensive form in their domestic league, where they won on Tuesday against Morrazo Cangas, 40:26
• Montpellier will be without Diego Simonet, Jonas Truchanovicius and Michael Guigou, all injured

GROUP B
MOL-Pick Szeged (HUN) vs RK Celje Pivovarna Lasko (SLO)
Saturday 6 October, 17:30 local time, live on ehfTV.com

• The last time the two teams met was in December 2016. Out of the six Champions League confrontations, Szeged won three, Celje two and one game finished in a draw
• Szeged are undefeated this season, both in Europe and the Hungarian league – their last defeat was to Veszprém in May
• Celje grabbed their first win last weekend against Flensburg, just a few days after bringing Gregor Ocvirk in as coach

Paris Saint-Germain HB (FRA) vs HBC Nantes (FRA)
Saturday 6 October, 17:30 local time, live on ehfTV.com

• This is a rematch of last season’s VELUX EHF Champions League Semi-final, when Nantes beat Paris 32:28
• The last time the two teams met was in September, when Nantes won a penalty shoot-out at the French Champions Trophy
• With their win against Celje in Round 2, Paris extended their unbeaten home run to 30 matches
• Nantes are without Kevynn Nyokas and Eduardo Gurbindo due to injury

Skjern Handbold (DEN) vs RK PPD Zagreb (CRO)
Sunday 7 October, 16:50 local time, live on ehfTV.com

• Skjern saw their perfect start to the European season end in Nantes last weekend. This was their fourth loss of the season, after suffering three in the Danish league
• the two teams have not played each other in the Champions League since 1999. Back then, the Croatian side won both encounters
• “Our goal is to reach the next stage of the tournament, and to do that, it is crucial for us to win against Zagreb. They took an impressive win in Flensburg, so this will be a very tough game for us,” says Skjern coach Ole Norgaard