Eight teams dream of Cologne as quarter-finals conclude
Who will make it into the line-up for the exciting TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2026? Title holders SC Magdeburg made a huge step towards Cologne by winning convincingly in Szeged last Wednesday, and they can capitalise on their advantage at home this week. The other three quarter-finals remain wide open, as the differences in the ties are not bigger than two goals.
Aalborg Håndbold and Barça have their fates in their hands, after drawing at Sporting Clube de Portugal and winning at HBC Nantes, respectively. Füchse Berlin, on the other hand, will have to overcome a one-goal deficit as they host One Veszprém HC on Wednesday evening.
The task for Wednesday is clear. We don’t need to worry about the goal difference, we simply have to win this game. Of course, it will also be a mental challenge. We’ve gone into great detail to ensure we tip the scales in our favour by that final margin needed for success. It’s still a fifty-fifty game, and we just want to go on the attack.
The most important thing is to play with the same mentality as last week. Problems arise if we forget that. It doesn’t matter who plays — everyone must give everything for the team. We are the reds. Together, all of us.
We got a positive result from the first leg, but it’s a dangerous score at the same time. A two-goal lead can be reduced in the blink of an eye during a whole game, so we need all of our fans in Palau to push and help us to overcome the tie. We have the experience of last season, when we suffered a lot in the second leg. We need everybody on Wednesday: from the first to the last player and, obviously, the fans.
I think we can play better than we did in the first leg. I hope we’re going to have a great game. Being two goals down in handball isn’t much — everything can change very quickly, and we believe in our chances. But we also know we’re playing Barça in Barcelona, a team ready to challenge us on every level, which makes it interesting. Winning and qualifying at Barça would be extraordinary.
All of us can really feel the excitement heading into the second leg of the quarter-finals. It has been such a big goal for the whole season and we want to give back to our fans and secure the win on home ground. But we also know what Sporting are capable of by now, and there are no easy wins in the Champions League. We are ready to give it all to end in the top four.
It's been an emotional season. We've managed to play great games against very strong opponents, but we've also had moments where we haven't been able to be what we want to be and we ended up paying a high price. For this game we only have one path, which is to be at our best, be effective defensively and offensively, and fight with all our strength.
We played a good game in Hungary and showed our quality. But now it's not about lying back or defending our lead. That's the wrong approach. We have to deliver another good performance, focus on ourselves, and give it our all. If we do that, we'll win and take the next big step on our journey.
We are going into the second leg with a deficit after the first match, where we made too many mistakes and were imprecise. We want to change that and keep the game open all the way through.
