20 minutes before the end of their Match of the Week encounter against Telekom Veszprém, Orlen Wisla Plock led 20:17 and were hoping for their second ever victory against the Hungarian side.
But thanks to 11 goals from Rasmus Lauge and a 13:6 run in the final third of the match, Veszprém secured a 30:26 victory to take an unbeaten record into the three-week break of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League. Veszprém top group A with 11 points from six matches, while Plock remain on five points.
GROUP A
MOTW: Orlen Wisla Plock (POL) vs Telekom Veszprém HC (HUN) 26:30 (14:15)
- Plock's second and last advantage in the first half was when they led 2:1. Veszprém then took control, but they could not extend the gap to more than two goals
- at the break, Plock had missed 10 shots compared to Veszprém's total of six, which was the main difference between the two sides
- Plock had their strongest period at the beginning of the second half, when they pulled ahead to lead 20:17, but Veszprém found the right answer by improving in defence and increasing their efficiency in attack to strike back with a crucial 9:2 run to lead 26:22
- boosted by 11 goals from their outstanding Danish centre back Rasmus Lauge, Veszprém took their sixth victory in their ninth duel with Plock
- Lauge was awarded Player of the Match and even passed his famous countryman Mikkel Hansen (42 goals) on the top scorer list with 44 goals
- after previously beating GOG and Zagreb, Plock were defeated on home ground for the first time this season; their best scorer was Gonzalo Pérez Arce with five goals
They know each other so well …
When it comes to a duel between Plock and Veszprém, it is always a meeting of good old friends and former teammates. Wisla Plock coach Xavier Sabate was Veszprém’s mastermind from 2015 to 2017, when current Veszprém coach Momir Ilic was one of his players.
Goalkeeper Rodrigo Corrales, who saved 10 shots from his former teammates on Thursday evening, played for Plock before he first went to Paris and then joined Veszprém. Defence specialist Mirsad Terzic played for the Hungarian runners-up before joining Plock in 2020.
I am very happy to come back to the place where I have spent many wonderful years. In today's match, due to the atmosphere in Orlen Arena, I had a lot of emotions that I wanted to hold back in order to focus and help my team. We all know how difficult it is to play in Orlen Arena and I know it from my own experience and we all know what work Xavi Sabate is doing with his team. On the other hand, we have some great players like Lauge, who helped us with this victory on difficult terrain, which we are very pleased with.
We knew it would be a very tough game and it was. We had our chances at the start of the second half when we took a three-goal lead. Unfortunately, we missed goals and we lost three or four balls, which made Veszprém lead the way. There were moments when Marcel Jastrzębski stopped a few of Veszprém's throws and it helped us get closer to our opponents.
