DVSC challenge Györ’s perfect record; Brest seek to consolidate top spot
The EHF Champions League Women 2025/26 continues this weekend (17-18 January) with round 10 of the group phase. The teams ranked third and fourth in group A will clash in the Match of the Week, as Gloria Bistrita visit Team Esbjerg on Sunday.
We will be hosting a very strong opponent who is in good form and has six players who featured in the final stages of the World Championship at the end of last year. This is a squad full of internationals, led by a coach who promotes a Scandinavian style of handball. Our primary task will be to stop their transition game. If we manage to do that, we can hope for a positive result.
We have just lost two games in a row, which is unusual for Metz Handball. We need to regroup, regain our strength and manage Storhamar's pace. They are a very, very fast team. We want to show the Arènes that Metz Handball knows how to play handball and that we want to get back on track.
Fantastic atmosphere in the hall, this is one of the coolest arenas to play in. Having said that, we are of course facing a very good handball team; few weaknesses to be found in Europe's best home team. We are travelling with good courage and we will take some good performances home with us, which we can build on beyond a hectic period.
I have big respect for Debrecen, after the two years here in Hungary and all of those close games, both home and away. You can always expect a strong performance from them. So, we need to prepare in the best way. We are really looking forward to a strong week, with Debrecen two times.
We want to play a good match and achieve a close result. Our league game against Ferencváros on Wednesday was played at a similar intensity. We need to learn from the mistakes we made there. Our goal is to stay with Györ for as long as possible; if we manage that, anything can happen in the final minutes.
Our goal in the match against Esbjerg is to improve our defence. It will be difficult because of the quality of their attacking players — Reistad, Møller, and Mørk are three incredible attacking players. We are going to fight to defend our third position in the group, but we know that to get a good result in Esbjerg, we need to play a very complete and competitive game.
It is going to be a tough, but exciting game. We are going to give everything we have, and we hope we can hit them where they look vulnerable. But the most important thing is to keep the focus on ourselves.
“We want to keep the momentum going after our strong performance in the league this week, and continue our home streak in front of our fans. Ikast is a very good team. The matches are going to become more and more difficult? January is always an intense period.”
Brest are a really strong opponent, who also beat Metz in the midweek game [in the French league]. We are facing a team that is incredibly mobile and intense at both ends of the court. It will be difficult, but we also had a good grip on them at home, so we can go there and make it difficult for them if we play to our skills.
CSM have an excellent squad and quality in every position. With the arrival of a new head coach, their style of play has also changed slightly. In the first game, we managed to surprise them and put on an excellent display. I am convinced that we are capable of doing the same this time. Therefore, there is no reason not to travel to Bucharest believing that we can surprise them again.
We are expecting an extremely demanding game that comes after a good game, but also a defeat, against Brest. We showed a lot of good things. As a coach, I am satisfied in defeat. It was a game that gives us guidelines for the next one. We have to be even better, especially defensively. It will be a tough game because if we are not right and we don't run, we can suffer a serious defeat against a big favourite.
