SECTOR DE LA CONSTRUCCIÓN

Carlos Viver coach

• became head coach before 2014/15 season, after leading the BM. Granollers female team to the Spanish 1st Division in the previous season • born in the same city (Granollers), he is the perfect prototype of a “one club man”, playing 16 seasons in BM. Granollers as a professional player • 1,150 league goals and most capped player for his club in European competition

Dmitrije Pejanovic goalkeeper

• born in 1974, the Serbian is one of the oldest players taking part in this edition of the EHF Cup • played at a professional level in Serbia, Greece, Belarus, Qatar and Spain, where the 2014/15 season was his 10th

• although having suffered an Aquilles tendon rupture in Dinamo Minsk in 2012, BM Granollers signed him from Al Rayyan (Qatar)

• 69 caps for Serbia, participant of the EHF EURO 2010 and WCh 2011

Salvador Puig right back

• son of line player Jaume Puig, who played for Spain in 172 international matches

• in 2014 he came back to Granollers from Toulouse after 19 months of inactivity due to ACL and LCL rupture

• 2014/15 is his 11th season at Granollers and a third episode (1996-2003, 2008-2011, 2014-...) • his 11 years younger brother Jordi Puig is also on the team

Anders Nicklas Grundsten line player

• started practicing at the age of 8, his parents were both handball players

• debuted in Granollers in 2009 coming from HSV Hamburg

• one of the current foreign players in Asobal with the longest relationship with a single Spanish club • Magnus Wislander is his idol player

EC trophies: EHF Cup 1994, 1995 (player)

EC trophy: EHF CL 2005 U18 WCh: B 2001, Junior WCh: G 2003

Coach and key players profiles

After four consecutive years of reaching the group phase of the VELUX EHF Champions League, HC St. Petersburg are taking their first steps in the EHF Cup – the first Russian side to do so at this stage.

St. Petersburg have finished as runners-up in their domestic league six times in a row - behind Chekhovskie Medvedi on each occasion - but will be aiming for top spot in Group B after beating Hungarian side Tatabanya to qualify.

Dmitry Torgovanov’s men will face Constanta (ROU), Granollers (ESP) and Holstebro (DEN) in the group phase, but boast a team full of international talent and have a coach in his fifth season in charge. One key man missing, however, is left winger Sergey Kuzmin, after a knee injury ruled him out for the rest of the season. The Neva-based club failed to advance to the knockout stages of the Champions League in each of the past four seasons, but club director Sergey Ziza is cautiously confident they can make that jump this time around.

“All four teams in our group are almost equals, so it will be hard for us to make it to the quarter-finals, but this is our goal,” he said.

“Maybe our expectations will be changed, because first of all we have to see the level of our opponents.”

Team captain Eldar Nasyrov remains humble too. He added: “It will be interesting to play against our opponents, at the same time I hope that our goal will not only be the participation, but also a good result.”

GROUP B

ST. PETERSBURG HC (RUS)

Club Address: St. Petersburg HC Dekabristov street, 35 190121 St. Petersburg Russia Media contact: Marina Zhurova +7 905 2340000 [email protected] Online information: Website: www.spbhandball.ru Playing hall Arena St.Petersburg Yjnaya doroga 25 197110 St. Petersburg Russia Capacity: 7,044 Kit colours Light

Player shirt: white/blue Player short: white Goalkeeper shirt: red

Dark

Player shirt: black/blue Player short: black Goalkeeper shirt: green

Newcomers

Taras Dryapochko (Skif Krasnodar) Hleb Harbuz (Dinamo Minsk) Victor Kireev (Kaustik Volgograd) Denis Mirzoev (Skif Krasnodar) Left the club

Igor Polyakov (end of career) Alexander Sanashkin (end of career) Dmitry Chernykh

Dmitry Lauzhin (both without clubs) Yury Semenov (Dinamo Astrakhan)

Past achievements VELUX EHF Champions League Participations: 4

Group Phase (4): 2010/11, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14

Other

Russian league: 1 title (1993), 5x runners-up (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)

Russian Cup: runners-up 2014 Road to the Group Phase

EHF Cup, Qualification Round 3

1st leg: Grundfos Tatabanya KC (HUN) vs St. Petersburg 23:22 2nd leg: St. Petersburg vs Tatabanya 32:24

No. First Name Surname Nat. Position Date of Birth Place of Birth Height Weight 19 Grigory Blagonadezhdin RUS Right Wing 23.3.1981 Saint-Petersburg, RUS 189 98 23 Anatolii Chezlov RUS Centre Back 23.4.1987 St. Petersburg, RUS 194 94 88 Taras Dryapochko RUS Right Back 20.3.1982 Shevchenko, KAZ 185 92 15 Evgeny Dudik RUS Centre Back 26.9.1995 Moscow, RUS 191 90 22 Pavel Elistratov RUS Line Player 21.5.1996 Tolyatti, RUS 190 95 33 Danil Gumianov RUS Right Wing 1.8.1996 Tolyatti, RUS 181 80 9 Hleb Harbuz BLR Centre Back 17.3.1994 Minsk, BLR 191 82 11 Ruslan Junisbekov KAZ Left Back 28.1.1989 Shimkent, KAZ 198 95 21 Gleb Kalarash RUS Line Player 29.11.1990 Moscow, RUS 202 94 5 Dmitrii Kiselev RUS Right Back 15.11.1994 Voronezhskaya, RUS 193 98 31 Victor Kovalenko RUS Centre Back 13.1.1982 Leningrad, RUS 192 93 4 Pavel Kungurov RUS Left Wing 2.11.1989 Snezhinsk, RUS 180 78 7 Sergey Kuzmin RUS Left Wing 2.2.1988 Boksitogorsk, RUS 182 80 24 Denis Mirzoev RUS Right Wing 7.1.1986 Stavropol, RUS 181 86 2 Eldar Nasyrov RUS Left Back 14.7.1986 Sahalinskaya obl, RUS 188 89 10 Dmitry Pavlov RUS Centre Back 17.11.1994 Yaroslavl, RUS 186 83 18 Evgeny Prokopyev RUS Left Back 23.2.1996 Tolyatti, RUS 195 90 13 Alexander Pyshkin RUS Line Player 13.4.1987 St. Petersburg, RUS 197 102 6 Vladislav Razmaev RUS Right Wing 16.3.1996 Tolyatti, RUS 177 83 17 Aleksandr Sinitcyn RUS Right Wing 13.3.1997 Saint-Petersburg, RUS 187 85 20 Gleb Smakhtin RUS Left Back 28.6.1995 St. Petersburg, RUS 200 96 1 Vitalii Shitsko RUS Goalkeeper 9.9.1987 St. Petersburg, RUS 198 97 87 Victor Kireev RUS Goalkeeper 5.5.1987 Penzenskaya obl., RUS 190 99 98 Maksim Popov RUS Goalkeeper 6.3.1998 S-Petersburg, RUS 190 100 12 Aliaksei Kishou BLR Goalkeeper 23.9.1986 Slutsk, BLR 193 94

Team roster