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Zagreb have no right for a third loss in a row!

This is an extremely important match in the fight for eighth finals. The Russians lost with 7 goals difference in Celje and if they lose today they will basically be out of the race and Zagreb would make a big step forward

St. Petersburg were one of the weakest teams in the whole competition last season and the almost unchanged squad brought no optimism or hope that this season an additional step forward can be made. The first two matches only confirmed that, the decisive losses against Veszprem and Celje pointed out the flaws of this team.

 - I congratulate Celje on winning today. We knew we are coming to visit a good team; we made too many mistakes both in the defense and offense to be able to do anything more - said the assistant coach Izosin.

The offense is definitely not on the necessary level for this level of competition. Only 37 goals in the first two matches are way to few and St. Petersburg can hardly count on any points with such performance, let alone getting through the group phase. The defense cannot be complained about, especially not in the first match where the powerful Hungarian machine was left quite limited during most of the match. However, in handball you cannot win matches if you don't score goals.

St. Petersburg are having trouble in the national championship as well and win with very narrow margins as was the case in the period between the away match in Slovenia and this match. The national championship is the priority; after Cehovski Medvedi got into financial problems a chance appeared for St. Petersburg to finally get the title.

 - The fixture is very dense, we don't have enough time to recover from hard trips and matches. However, we continue to fight - said Torgovanov after the last championship match.

The Champions League is somewhat of a second priority after all. The home match against Zagreb is one of the best chances for St. Petersburg to get a point or two but it is not impossible for St. Petersburg to fail to repeated their last season's efficiency when they won at least one match. The only Russian team don't have the needed quality for this competition and although Zagreb brought a lot of young players for this season they are definitely the favorites here.

Zagreb are a team who prefer a somewhat faster pace but also a team who showed against Celje they can press harder in the defense when necessary. St. Petersburg simply have to win today if they want to remain in any kind of combination.

 - Zagreb are a good team who represent the elite of European handball. They gathered excellent players who are playing for Croatia. It will be difficult to play against them but we will do all that's in our power and I hope we will win. We won two important matches in the championship and the mood in the team is very good. We intend to take first points in the Champions League - said Pyshkov in the match preview.

There are several difficult days behind the young team of Zagreb and ahead of them is a match of high pressure. They managed to win against Celje somehow at home but the losses at Motor in Ukraine and Mehskov in Brest could disrupt the well-placed foundations.

 - We need to play the best match of the season because we are awaited by a home team who are definitely unpleasant - said coach Boris Dvorsek ahead of the departure far away to Russia and we quote the statement from Sportnet.hr.

 - My wish as a coach and that of the entire headquarters is for us to finally be the real us we are in training, where we are incredible.

We still haven't seen that 'incredible' Dvorsek's Zagreb. Against Celje there was a lot of trouble, against Motor the individual technical faults, especially of Mandalinic, led them to a loss and in Brest against Meshkov they played an offensively poorest match of the season.


 - St. Petersburg have a very dynamic 6-0 defense and two tall players on pivot position who complement each other well and they are tricky to break through and pull a very good counterattack. They have a lot of shots from the ground and sticking through.

In Meshkov Dvorsek gave a longer time in the offense on the left back position for the first time to Josip Sandrk who played really well in the past seasons in Hungary.

 - I hope I will prove that the team can count on me in the offense as well as defense in the Champions League.

Mandalinic is capable of getting the crowd to their feet with his shots but he is also capable of ruining everything with technical faults. His huge problem is that he cooperates very little with the pivot, while he doesn't cooperate at all with the wing because he is constantly moving towards the middle. There lies Sandrk's chance. He has space and it is down to him whether he will use it or not.

 - The team took the loss in Brest much more seriously than the on in Ukraine because we came there as favorites. We were hit by bad performance in the offense.

There will be no changes in the lineup. Zagreb are still without the injured Kovacevic and Obranovic and the pivot Coric is a surplus.

Many people emphasize Zagreb' s youth as their advantage, but the Russians won't allow that to come to fruition. They conceded 28 against Veszprem at home, they conceded 29 in Celje, I don't see how Zagreb could score 30. This is the last chance for Russians to stay in the game and fight for the second round. If they win, they have a home game against Celje in hand and this triangle - Russians - Croats - Slovenians would decide on the team to make it to round of 16. Zagreb played a super-fast game against Motor but Ukranians are completely different to Zagreb, who have Mandalinic and Stepancic on their wings. They scored 19 against Meshkov, 24 against Celje, and I don't see why they should be able to reach 30 today.