group b - European Handball Federation

VELUX EHF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2011/12 TEAM OVERVIEW
HC Bosna BH Gas Sarajevo (BIH)
Last season, for the first time in their club history, the seven-time Bosnian champions reached the
Last 16 – and now the Bosna team is hungry to repeat this success. Coach Irfan Smajlagic has made
several changes to his team with seven newcomers arriving and five players (including top star Petar
Kapisoda) leaving.
On home turf the Sarajevo team always show a stronger performance, attended by thousands of
frenetic spectators, so the objective away will be to become more stable.
IK Savehof (SWE)
For the fourth time the Swedes have qualified for the VELUX EHF Champions League. Savehof won the
qualification tournament in Vienna thanks to their clear semi-final victory over Besiktas and a tight
final qualifying match success against Dinamo Minsk.
The new star of IK Savehof is Swedish international Fredrik Larsson after their former top scorer,
Jonathan Stenbacken, left to join German side Fuchse Berlin. IK Savehof (which is close to
Gothenburg) is well known for their highly successful youth programme and organise the famous
Partille Cup.
Group B:
Chekhovskie Medvedi (RUS)
Chekhovskie Medvedi are the only one of all 24 participating teams to qualify for the Group Stage of
the EHF Champions League for the twelfth straight time.
The Russian champions known as ‘the Bears’ are still clearly the team to beat in Russia, and
internationally they have improved to be considered as one of the major contenders in European
handball. Still counting on physical strong players, coach Vladimir Maximov does not have major
changes in his squad. Only Alexey Kamanin left, but legendary wing player Eduard Kosharov arrived.
Again their aim will be to go to the VELUX EHF FINAL4, but the Bears will face strong opponents in the
first stage as they hope to go through to the Last 16.
MKB Veszprem KC (HUN)
For the 17th time the Hungarian record champions are participating in the VELUX EHF Champions
League – and again they are one of the candidates for the VELUX EHF FINAL4. But like in the last few
seasons, when they had to face extremely strong opponents and were eliminated twice by FC
Barcelona, Veszprem were unlucky with the group draw.
The club from Lake Balaton again signed some big names such as Ferenc Ilyes and or Croatian national
team goalkeeper Mirko Allilovic – the successor of the legend between the posts, Dejan Peric. But