Barça and Magdeburg book first quarter-final tickets
The first two quarter-final participants of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2025/26 season are confirmed already after round 11 of the group phase: record champions Barça and defending champions SC Magdeburg clinched their berths by starting their 2026 campaign with victories. While both teams from group B are now known, Aalborg Håndbold took a major step towards finishing among the top two in group A by winning the derby against Kolstad Håndball. Paris Saint‑Germain also claimed both points in Zagreb.
It was fantastic to be back in the Champions League on our home court. Today, we had to get going and find our way during the first half. Once we did that, we knew that we would be the better team and ended up running away from them. The match script turned to be exactly as we expected, where we had predicted that in the end, we would wear them out, which is exactly what happened. All in all, a great way for us to begin 2026-play in the Champions League.
It was great to be back in Denmark. We’ve been through some turbulent months and are trying to navigate all of that. We showed a lot of character and played well in the first half, especially the opening 20 minutes. After that, Aalborg just showed why they are probably a FINAL4-team. Even though we lost by 12 goals, there are still many bright spots for us to look to going forward.
PSG are currently a better team than us - that’s clear - and they deserved to win. Perhaps we could have done better in certain aspects, but that’s how it is right now. It’s up to us to grow and improve for what lies ahead, both in the Champions League and in the domestic league. They outplayed us in all segments of the game. There’s a lot of work ahead of us. We need to be better, more decisive and more aggressive. It’s hard to say much more than that.
It’s always a pleasure to play here. We are very happy with the win, as we knew it would be a tough game against a very good opponent. We made the difference in the first half, especially in defence, with Green backing us up, but we kept pushing in the second half as well, and I’m proud of that. An important win.
We have a lot of injured players who will return at different times, but regardless of that, we could see that if we don’t work properly, we lose. I am extremely disappointed with the first half – in fact, I’m more angry than disappointed. Quite simply, we were not good enough. The second half was better; we managed to show how we can fight for the club. I never, ever want to see this happen again.
It’s always a great pleasure for me to play in Hungary, especially here in Szeged. We knew the home team had several injured players, but many of ours were at the European Championship as well. We didn’t have much time to prepare together, yet we played with confidence in this match, and that made the difference.
Huge compliments to GOG for their performance here with this young squad. They are incredibly talented. We wanted to remain undefeated today, and we achieved that – skipping the round of 16 and advancing to the quarter-finals. That's a huge advantage on the road to the FINAL4. It certainly gives us a good feeling.
It was a difficult task for us, but we can be satisfied. Our team is very young and despite we lost by seven goals, we can be proud of ourselves.
Wednesday's action
