DAY REVIEW: Kolstad end Kiel’s series, perfect debut for Sostaric
Round 5 of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League concluded with five matches on Thursday – and all five home teams took at least one point. While Zagreb and Veszprém were ahead clearly, Kolstad stopped THW Kiel in style. This means, Barça (MOTW winner at Celje on Wednesday) are the only of the 16 teams still with a clear record. The two 2023 finalists Magdeburg (against Porto) and Kielce (against Szeged) had to struggle hard to get two points. Pelister and Plock remain on the bottom still waiting for their first points.
Hugh respect for Kiel, but we started off good even though we had a little drop in intensity in the middle of first half. Kiel are a great team, with good players in every positions, so they would punish us immediately when we make mistakes. Scoring 19 goals in the first half is very good against such good defence.
It was a very intense match. I saw my team with a lot of character today, unfortunately we made some mistakes in an important part of the game. We were not able to finish the game in good quality.
We've got a hard week behind us, we were dealing with certain injuries and problems, but we've obviously managed to overcome them really well. Congrats to my players - all of them, for delivering a strong, fighting performance today, working extra hard to help each other. That's something every coach likes to see.
We played really well for 43-45 minutes but after that we did not only slow down but completely stopped. Unfortunately, this is not the first time something like this happened to us, and we'll surely have to work on that going forward. We've got to be aware that playing well throughout three quarters of the game is not going to win us any points in the EHF Champions League this season.
It was a good fight today. At the end we have a draw,
what means a difficult moment for us. We need to continue growing and
focus on our next game. We need to work hard and we will see when Alex
(Dujshebaev) and Andreas (Wolff) will come back. We showed that we always fight to the end. Szeged also played very well. Heads up and we will see what happens.
We did a good job today and won one point in Kielce against one of the best teams in the world. For us it is a big step, because we had big problems with getting points away. Now we need to continue to work hard and see what happens.
Our defence was the key to today's match, which we executed at a very high level. We dominated this encounter for 60 minutes. True, we had our ups and downs, but after a few bad minutes, we always managed to renew ourselves. I think we can build on this defence in the future.
I am sad because we came here to win this match. At the same time, I am also happy, because one of my biggest dreams came true by being able to play here. I started playing handball because of my father, who achieved great success here in Veszprém. It was fantastic to play here. Today they were better than us in defence and attack.
Playing against Porto is never easy because they always find solutions. We are happy that we won the game in the end.Janus SmarasonSCM Magdeburg centre back
It was a really tough game, but we knew that beforehand when you go to Magdeburg. We sold ourselves well, but in the end Magdeburg was too strong.
Thursday's action in Round 5
