Old rivals Nexe and Tatran Presov to clash in Nasice

Leon Vucko

Second round of the SEHA – Gazprom League brings excitement back to Nasice. On Sunday, 8th of September at 7 PM (CET) Croatian Nexe will host the Slovakian Tatran Presov. It will be the clash of the old rivals. 

The start of the season was not brilliant for both teams. Nexe lost the first match of the season against Vojvodina, while Motor Zaporozhye were better than Tatran Presov. These two teams already met in the pre-season when Tatran took the victory in a friendly match.

Both teams have big expectations from this season so they will want to start to collect the points as soon as possible. 

The match will be streamed on Arena Sport (in Croatia), Arena Sport (in Slovakia), Sport TV (in Slovenia) and ehfTV. 

Hrvoje Horvat, Nexe coach:
In my opinion, Tatran's defeat in the first round wasn't the biggest surprise. The League is very good this season. There are many excellent teams. So, a lots of matches could end with the win on one or the other side. This Sunday I expect that kind of match. First of all, we must play better than we did in Novi Sad. I am not satisfied with our performance. We must be more agressive, especially in defense. We are very happy that we will play on the home court, in front of our fans. They will give us additional motive and that is necessary for a victory against the team like Tatran Presov. 

Zivan Pesic, Nexe player:
We expect a very tough match on Sunday but I hope that we will celebrate on the home court. During this week we prepared for this match. Also, we have analyzed all our mistakes during the last match in Novi Sad. Of course we have a lots of new players, I am one of them as well. So we need some time to get used to this environment, but I hope that we will do that as soon as possible. 

Slavko Goluza, Tatran Presov coach: 
Nexe are traditionally difficult opponent, especially when they play in front of their fans. Considering their loss against Vojvodina, they will be highly motivated to get points on the home court. We also had a very demanding opening match against Motor Zaporozhye which took a lot out of our team and we are dealing with several injuries. At the moment I am not sure which roster will be available for the match. We do not have a pressure in this match, because Nexe are favourites.

Leon Vucko, Tatran Presov player:
After a first-round defeat against Motor Zaporozhye, we had a couple of days to prepare for the match against Nexe. We met each other during the pre-season and we won a match in Nasice. However, this will we a completely different match and we are aware of it. As always, we expect Nexe to play agressive. We are ready for this match and we are going to do our best against Nexe.