Summary: Veszprém hold off Plock for MOTW win

• Veszprém win the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25 round 8 Match of the Week vs Plock 30:26
• also on Thursday: Füchse Berlin vs Dinamo Bucuresti 38:29; still to come, Industria Kielce vs OTP Bank - PICK Szeged and Barça vs HBC Nantes
• Wednesday's results: HC Zagreb vs SC Magdeburg 22:18; Aalborg Håndbold vs Kolstad Håndbold 30:28; Sporting CP vs Paris Saint-Germain Handball 39:28; HC Eurofarm Pelister vs Fredericia Håndbold Klub 29:29
• see the group standings here and find highlights of all matches on the Home of Handball YouTube
• Courtney Gahan reported; photos courtesy of Veszprém/Roland Peka

Thursday 21 November

20:45

That brings us to the end of the live blog coverage of the round 8 MOTW! The last fun fact about the MOTW is that this win was Veszprém's 250th overall in the Champions League. 

There are still two matches to conclude the round, starting right now — Industria Kielce vs OTP Bank - PICK Szeged and Barça vs HBC Nantes. Head over to EHFTV to catch them. 

Remember you can see highlights of all games on the Home of Handball YouTube. 

Join us next week as the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25 returns for round 9. 

Until then, goodnight! 

20:16

Aron Pálmarsson caps a triumphant return to Veszprém, taking the Player of the Match award in the first game where he makes his way onto the score board. The Icelandic back netted six goals and recorded three assists to contribute to the Hungarian team's seventh win of the season. 

18:37

We are set for MOTW throw-off in just a few minutes! Join us now on EHFTV.

The MOTW pits a few Icelanders against each other — Bjarki Mar Elisson and Aron Palmarsson for Veszprém, against Plock keeper Viktor Hallgrímsson. The three have played along side each other in the national team for many years now. 

Palmarsson has recently made quite a sensational return to Veszprém, with the news of him coming back to the Hungarian club, for whom he played for two seasons from 2015 to 2017, announced in late October. Although he has played two matches back with Veszprém, Palmarsson has yet to net a Champions League goal this season. Let's see if that happens tonight. 

Hallgrímsson spoke about Palmarsson's return to Veszprém in the MOTW feature: 

“Of course, this was also a surprise for me, but it is great for the whole handball world. Aron knows coach Xavi Pascual very well, he knows the club and he still is a great player. Definitely, he was my big idol when I started playing handball. He is a legend.”

Read about Palmarsson's return to Veszprém here. 

18:20

With the group phase now past the halfway mark, round 8 is the first in which we see teams facing each other for the second time this season. In round 7, when Plock hosted Veszprém, the Hungarian side took a late win, 27:24, after a level battle up to that point. 

That added another victory for Veszprém in the head-to-head record between the two, which now stands at nine wins for the Hungarian team, two for Plock and two draws.

In the 2023/24 season, Plock were responsible for one of Veszprém's four losses in the group phase, and their most decisive, at 30:37. 

Prior to that, Plock last beat Veszprém in 2014. They have never won in Veszprém's arena. 

18:14

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18:05

Good evening and welcome back to the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25! Following a two-week break, round 8 opened on Wednesday night and we are counting down to the start of the Match of the Week, Veszprém vs Plock, starting at 18:45 CET. 

Getting started with some reading material — below, check out the MOTW feature with Plock's Icelandic goalkeeper Viktor Hallgrímsson, recap Wednesday's games with the day review, and brush up on tonight's games with the round preview.