Nexe are looking for their first points against the newcomers from China

Marin Jelinic

The Croatian vice-champions, Nexe will host the newcomers from China, Beijing Sport University for the first time ever on Monday, the 30th of September in King Tomislav sports hall in Nasice. The match is scheduled for 7 PM (CET). It will be the clash of two teams that are currently placed at the bottom of the table in Group A. After three rounds, both Nexe and Beijing Sport University still havent't secured any points. So this match will be a fresh opportunity to do so, especially for „thunders from Nasice“ who will play in front of their fans. 

This will be the second match on the home court for Nexe, as they hosted Tatran Presov in the second round when Slovakian team secured tight victory.  

Beijing Sport Univerity also have three losses from the matches against Vardar, Vojvodina and Motor Zaporozhye and this will be another chance for them to gather experience on the court. 

Before they were on their present positions, Beijing Sport University coach Vlado Sola and Nexe coach, Hrvoje Horvat used to coch the same team – Dubrava from Zagreb. So, this duel will also be interesting from their point of view.  

Hrvoje Horvat, Nexe coach: 
We have to improve from match to match. In the match against Vojvodina, we played good for 20 minutes. Against Tatran we had excellent first half and in the last match in Skopje we were playing excellent for 45 minutes. Some things will not happen overnight but we will play in front of our fans and no matter that there will be some players missing, we will try our best because we are the favourites. Halil Jaganjac, Ivan Vida, Ivan Srsen and Tomi Vozab will not play because they are injured, Tomic is still in Qatar so some of the young players will get the chance to step on the court. I am sure that we have excellent potential. The Chinese team are very big mystery for us. Our advantage will be our fans in King Tomislav sports hall who will cheer loudly and hopefully carry us to a victory. 

Tomislav Severec, Nexe player: 
As everyone can see, we are improving as the time goes by. Our play in the last match was excellent, but we made some technical errors and didn't secure the points at the end. We must not underestimate our next opponents. We have to be ready in all segments of the game. 

Vlado Sola, Beijing Sport University coach:
Our next opponent is the team from Nasice, Nexe who are a very good team. After a tough week in which we played with Vojvodina and Motor Zaporozhye, there is too little time left for detailed preparation, but we are using every moment of training to explain to our players how Nexe are playing and to prepare tactically for that match. What we constantly do is practice our techniques and tactics, improving it day in and day out, and hope that in a very short time we will be able to accomplish all of the things we practice in training. Our expectations against Nexe are that we want to show the best possible handball both in the defense and attack, and to be a worthy opponent to Nexe.

Cao Yue, Beijing Sport University player:
We hope for a good match in Nasice. We have already been 2 months together now and we have developed our game style. What I hope for is that we will make less technical mistakes in the match than we usually do, especially considering the last match in Zaporozhye. I hope that we will stay focused for the entire 60 minutes of the match and fight as a team. Of course, Nexe are the favorites in this match, they played in the SEHA  Final 4 tournament last season. They are strong and are playing at home. Nexe did not open the season in the best way, so they will definitely fight for the three points against us, but we will give our best to try to achieve a good result.