Return phase starts as Paris take on Kolstad in MOTW
After the first half of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League group phase, plenty of questions are still to be answered, but a couple of things are for certain. The first is that no team will reach the end of the phase with 14 wins, as every team has experienced at least one loss so far. The second is that HC Eurofarm Pelister, RK Celje Pivovarna Laško and Orlen Wisla Plock have some work to do if they want to reach the latter stages.
We had a really bad day on Thursday. We didn't find our performance and deserved to lose. We want to do better on Wednesday!
Last week we played a good first half and a disastrous second half against PICK Szeged...that thing shouldn’t happen to us at the match in Bitola. We know them well, they will have a bigger rotation and some new handball players who did not play in Hungary. In front of our loyal fans, I believe in a better edition and a better result.
It's a very important game for the group standings, but also for our mentality. We've lost two games in a row in the competition, so we need to move forward together.
A lot of positives to take from last week's game, at the same time we have a lot to correct. We have to improve our defensive game, as well as make fewer technical mistakes in our offensive game. Certainly one of the toughest away games of the season before us
Last week's match needs to be analysed, but also put out of mind. We have a lot of games ahead of us and we need to focus on what will be, not on what was. We need to get two points in our hall.
We'll do our best to focus on the cooperation their back players have with their line player - we took care of that well in Zagreb, and we'll try our best to repeat that in Poland. I think we've got the right to hope for, and believe in a good result.
It's certain that we played our best match of the season in Barcelona, and anyone who understands handball and sports knows that the same level cannot be expected continuously, so it's normal where we are after the national team break. For me, of course, the most important thing is that we always play as well as possible, but actually a good average is the key.
I want from my players to correct some mistakes we made in the first match, we have nothing to lose. We will give our best and maybe we can get our first points of the season.
We are really looking forward to being visited by the world's best handball team again, and we hope that we can repeat last season's victory over SC Magdeburg. It is of course a really strong team that awaits us, but we saw last week that we can play with them, and we hope that the home ground can provide the extra percentages that it takes to hang on for the entire match.
The home win against GOG was hard-fought and they made life difficult for us for a long time. And we already experienced how difficult an away game at GOG can be last season. So we have to be ready right from the start.
The game with Montpellier at home is really important: on one hand, we want to clean up the bad image we gave them last week, and on the other, we want to be able to overtake them in the group standings. And thus be one step closer to the qualification for the next round
It will be a very tough match. They are a team that works quite well, very aggressive in defence. They take their time in attack and always stand up to us. They have a mix of experienced players and younger players. They have a very good team.
We are going to Barcelona without any pressure to enjoy the game as much as possible, but also filled with ambition. In the home encounter we caused Barça's players some problems. I think that even in the end we had our chances.
