“It is quite impressive. We saw the images, we saw the footage but still, it’s completely different when you are actually here,” says Swiss goalkeeper Nikola Portner. “Even though it is completely empty, it is huge. I can imagine how it is going to be with all the spectators in it.”
A lot of the players are used to playing big arenas in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League, but only a very few can say that they have played in a stadium before in their careers.
“Handball is one of the main sports in Germany, and I’ve been to this kind of events before with Rhein-Neckar Löwen and it’s something to remember,” adds Switzerland’s Andre Schmid, who played Tag des Handballs in Frankfurt in 2014, which holds the record until Wednesday’s games.
French centre back Kentin Mahé also played the event 10 years ago, but according to him, things on Wednesday might well be very different.
“The arena here is shaped so it is an arena inside another arena, it’s a little different compared to what was done in Frankfurt. When I entered the court, it was a slap in the face, it’s hard to picture it completely,” he explains.
These two games will really be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for everyone involved. Even the biggest names of the sport have not had the chance yet to play in such a setting.
“I talked about it to Nikola Karabatic and he has never seen something as gigantic in handball. That says it all,” adds French right back Valentin Porte.
German players discovered the arena on Tuesday when they trained for the first time at the MERKUR Spiel-Arena.
“It’s impressive, you actually do not get the impression that it’s a football stadium too much,” says Juri Knorr. The Rhein-Neckar Löwen centre back probably knows that the football pitch had to be taken off, that the roof had to be closed and that stands for more than 9,000 spectators were built from scratch.
The result, when more than 53,000 handball fans seat will be present at throw-off should be an amazing one to see and hear.
“I can only imagine it roaring tomorrow night. That’s going to be huge, even though we are used to big arenas when we play in the Bundesliga,” concludes Germany left back Lukas Mertens.
Fasten your seatbelt, handball is about to take flight in the most spectacular manner on Wednesday evening in Dusseldorf.
Photos © Sasa Pahic Szabo, Uros Hocevar, Axel Heimken/kolektiff
