EHF Champions League
GOG cruise past Zagreb in opening match
The Danish team came back to the Machineseeker EHF Champions League after playing the quarter-finals of the EHF European League Men last season. GOG were looking strong from the first minute of the match and, with a strong defence and fast breaks, left PPD Zagreb hopeless. The Croatian champions have clear goals of progressing to the play-offs this season. To reach it, they will have to change tactics, starting from scratch.
Great start of the Champions League campaign for us. Defense was functioning really well today, Tobias was great between the posts, the fastbreaks were incredible in the first half, and in the end we managed to secure the first points. We slowed down in the second half, but despite that, I can say I am proud and happy about the way we performed here today.
I have to be honest and say I expected my team to react a bit better in this one. Offence was functioning well in the opening ten minutes of the encounter. On the other hand, we were not running the court well in defensive transition and didn't react well to what they had to offer in positional attack. We managed to wake up ten minutes into the second but it was already too late... Last season we suffered a tough loss against Aalborg in the first round which is why I think we now have to do our best to analyze this performance, draw conclusions and find a way to grow both as individuals and as a team.