Group phase awaits dramatic finish with two knockout spots at stake
The group phase of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2023/24 wraps up with a thrilling round 14 this week, when group A play to a finish on Wednesday and group B on Thursday. In group B, two tickets for the knockout phase are still open – and both will be decided in direct encounters between the teams involved.
We will show our best side to give our home crowd, who have been fantastic throughout the group phase, a worthy end to this year's Champions League. Also, every point we take in the group phase is important for Norwegian handball's position in the seeding for years to come, so we will give our best to get a good ending.
Kolstad are a great team, with many top players. We are training hard and I think we will be ready for what awaits us. We will show ourselves in a better light, unlike the first match we played in Bitola. The coach gives me more time to play in defence, which of course I have to justify.
It's simply incredible how Zagreb have managed to turn things around this season. The team is really strong, everyone knows what they have to do in attack and defence. Zagreb are back to being the Zagreb we used to know, the Zagreb that can beat any opponent. But of course, we want to win and win the group.
We are delighted to be in the quarter-finals already, but we are still chasing the top spot in our group. If Kiel slip up in their match, we must be ready to pounce and get the win. Beating Kielce twice in the same season would also be a memorable feat for us.
I will take a one-goal win against Aalborg blindly. Just look who is playing there - Mikkel Hansen, Lukas Nilsson, Niklas Landin... They have very experienced players in each position. I'm not thinking about the opponents in the next phase of the Champions League. Whether it will be Montpellier or GOG, we will approach everyone with respect and the will to win.
This is going to be a TOP match, I think if you ask anyone close to handball, we can boldly say that this encounter could even fit as an EHF Champions League final. Both teams equally need the two points, the victory. Talking about Magdeburg, it's enough to say perhaps that they are EHF Champions League winners, Super Globe winners, they won the Bundesliga in 2022, a team that strives for victory in every situation and everywhere in the world.
Our last match of the season in the EHF Champions league. We play at home in front of our fans and we want to end the campaign on a high. Away at GOG we played a really good match and were close to gain at least a point. We have a different team since then, but we will give everything to win the last match.
It's a game that will decide which team will reach the next stage of the EHF Champions League. We are playing at home in front of our fans and we need more than ever to see the arena filled with them and to feel their support. It will be a difficult match against a good team with good players, but if somebody had told us at the beginning of the season that we would depend on ourselves now then we would all have gone for it without a second thought.
We are where we want to be, discussing going to the next stage of the competition, playing against a very strong team...We need to bring the spirit of our last games to this one, be very focused from the beginning of the game until the end. We want to show up to the game locked in, with a lot of ambition and united as team. Those are the ingredients that can get us to the next stage of the competition.
Montpellier can beat anyone. We have to be very focused because they can make things very complicated for us. If, before starting the group phase, we had thought about playing for first place at home on the last day, we would all have signed it. We must be proud of what we have done, but we have to continue.
