Celje PL eager to clinch Final 4 placement with a win in Nasice

Celje PL - Nexe

Only three days after they managed to beat Koper at home in EHF Cup group stage, NEXE will on Wednesday (21.00 CET) in their King Tomislav sports hall welcome Celje Pivovarna Lasko. Guys from Nasice already have six draw results this season and it’s interesting one of those came in the first half of the season when they played Celje away from home. Although they already lost all hopes of qualifying for SEHA - Gazprom Final Four tournament they’ll surely look to secure the best possible position in the regular season standings and boost their self-confidence ahead of upcoming EHF Cup challenges. Gorenje’s loss in Zagreb on Tuesday on the other hand means Celje PL would with a win in Nasice secure their first ever SEHA final tournament appearance.

Match will be broadcasted on ehf TV, Sport TV and Arena Sport channels.

Hrvoje Horvat, NEXE coach:We’re playing in a hell of a rhythm lately so we must take care of our players, watch out for ourselves. All Slovenian teams we’ve already played against so far this season displayed a certain level of organization and focus but Celje are of course an even higher dimension. If we compare this match to the one we played against them in the first part of the season you see that they’ll now have former NEXE’s player Ivan Sliskovic in their roster. Apart from him they have a lot of quality players and a solid rotation which means we’ll have to play almost a perfect match if we want to beat them. We’ll miss Marin Jelinic tomorrow and that’s just an additional reason why we need our fans to come and help us. 

Marin Greganic, NEXE player:It won’t be easy at all because Celje PL are a very good team whose strongest sides are fast transition, precise attacks and excellent defense. However, we’ll play at home so I expect fans to be our eighth player tomorrow and support us like they did on Sunday against Koper. I believe everything is possible.

Branko Tamse, Celje PL coach:Tough match is ahead of us, regardless of the situation on the table. Speaking of NEXE, I don’t think their position shows their true strength. They are proving their capabilities in EHF Cup where they are playing great and on the other side they can in SEHA League play relaxed, without a pressure burden on their shoulders which can often be a good thing. We’re dealing with some injury problems at the moment. We’ll miss Beciri, Makuc, Kodrin and Mitrovic but we hope Sliskovic and Vujovic will be able to play on Wednesday. It is however clear we’ve all got to perform on the highest possible level if we want to achieve a positive result in Croatia.

David Razgor, Celje PL player:Champions League is in the books now but even despite of that we still have two matches to play per week. On Wednesday we’ll play NEXE in what will be a very hard match against a team which has some experienced players who can always be difference makers on the court. They are playing better and better lately and they recently managed to sign Brumen who will surely bring a lot to the team. If we want points we’ve got to be on our top level. We have some minor injury problems but I assure you we’ll give our max. We’ll try to win it although it’s easier to say that than to actually do it.