Kielce to main round; high-octane Veszprém take Füchse
The group phase of the EHF Champions League Men 2026/27 is heading towards its final stages, with only three game days left after the opening of round 5 on Wednesday night. And while some fates were decided, some tickets for the main round are still up for grabs.
The game wasn’t easy. The Füchse players showed once again that they are true to themselves — they always approach the game with great focus. Berlin played brilliantly, but our performance in the first half was simply outstanding. However, at this level, it’s very difficult to maintain that standard throughout an entire match. Berlin scored more goals in the second half and switched to a seven-against-six attack, which made things more difficult for us defensively as well. But the amount of work we put in during the first half was incredible.
It was clear that the opening stages proved decisive. Our decision-making at the start, particularly our shot selection against Emil Nielsen, was not good enough, and that shaped the rest of the match. However, I think we did a much better job in the second half, with Mathias helping us stick to our game plan and try to find solutions. Ultimately, we had no answer to Veszprém in the opening stages, and the advantage they built was enough to see them through to the final whistle.
We wanted to win and we tried to put our best show today, but that wasn't enough. Porto plays so good in offence, and our defence wasn't on the good level today. But after around 45th minute, we started to run. We made some mistakes even then, but we started to run, to play and to give everything, and today that was enough for the draw.
We started really good. I think some problems on the defence, on the defensive side, but on the offence we were really good. At the end, I think we had some misses, and then we gave the opportunities to Partizan to get back in the game. So, I think it was a well-disputed game.
It’s always hard to play in Nantes. We had four tough matches we lost in the last minutes, with one or two-goal difference. We were waiting for one perfect match and two points we could celebrate. It was important to show we are better than in the previous matches.
This is the worst night I've experienced in five years, if not longer. We've been struggling in our one-on-one situations against the goalkeeper for several games now. We're creating chances, but we're not managing to score. We were punished for it, we lost confidence and it was really tough tonight. Defensively, things weren't much better. We're far too inconsistent
I feel like we did control the game in the opening half, but in the second half their 5-1 defence caused us a lot of trouble and helped them crawl back into it, eventually turning the game around completely. A well-deserved win for them, especially after some tough, narrow defeats they have already suffered this season.
Finally, a well-deserved win for us after some really tough, close losses already this season. We remained calm after the first half, in which we were four goals behind, and in the second half everything went our way — defence, offence, even the fans followed, and after that it felt like there was nothing stopping us anymore.
A very good match played by us. I think this is the real Dinamo team, and I’m delighted that we managed to achieve this huge victory. We kept six players back for the start of the game. I’m very happy, and I’m glad the team has finally shown its true quality. We won by an incredible margin, and I’m really pleased with the way we played.
They were in good shape today and we are not. They deserved to win. They start the game very good. They exploded our defence a lot. It was pretty tough for us to fight with them. It was not good enough effort for us today.
