Round 13 to bring intense battles as MOTW travels to Paris
Last week, One Veszprém HC (group A) and Barça (group B) secured the top spots and direct progress to the quarter-finals, but there are still plenty of things to be decided in both groups, as round 13 of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25 is about to begin.
As we prepare to face Wisla Plock in our next Champions League fixture, we are fully aware of the challenge ahead. In our previous encounter, we suffered a narrow one-goal defeat away from home against a direct competitor known for their strength on their own court. We are working hard to secure these two points and to finally reward our fans with a home victory.
The match against Dinamo is a very important rivalry for both teams. Despite everything, we have to think first and foremost about ourselves. We know that the atmosphere there is very heated, but we are only focused on going to the Romanian capital and trying to win.
We need the win if we want to still have any chance of reaching the top two places in the group. We will play at home, in front of our fans and we will do our best to get the points and a solid performance. We want to win. On the other side, there will be a team with nothing to lose and that will certainly want to take advantage of this European night.
When you play against a team like Paris, and in France, I don’t think extra motivation is needed – everyone wants to win. But we have to face these things realistically. We have already qualified, and we need to think about the next steps.
It feels like everything is at stake for both teams. For us, it's about keeping our chance of finishing second. Although we didn't put ourselves in pole position with last week's result, anything is possible. A home win against Pelister is crucial for that. For Pelister, it's about finishing sixth and reaching the play-offs. That's why I expect them to give it their all.
February is brutal, but that's the case for all teams. Füchse Berlin has the same problem with fatigue as we do. They played Flensburg in the Bundesliga a few days ago. They are really playing well. However, we are used to it, we have little time to enjoy ourselves after the great home match yesterday and I am happy that the hard work is paying off.
We know everyone can beat everyone and Zagreb are no exception. We are at a really important stage right know where everything has to be decided and we really want that ticket to the quarter-finals, which we still have in our own hands. A win against Zagreb will be important. We are still unbeaten at home this season, so we want to keep that streak.
We know the stakes of this match. We go out on the court and fight. We all know what the situation is in the standings and winning against HBC Nantes is the most important. We think about ourselves, we don't calculate, we want to win two matches.
This game will be a big challenge. We can see how good Magdeburg are when they manage to beat good teams, even with so many injuries. But we have everything to win, while they have everything to lose. I hope we can create a proper play-off atmosphere in Kolstad Arena where we finally run away with the victory.
The wins in Kielce and against Aalborg have put us back in a good position. We want to build on that.
We are facing 60 minutes that are very important for us. We haven’t earned a single point in the Champions League this year, so we definitely want to improve. Right now, we are in fourth place in the group, but we want to move up, and to do that, we have to defeat the reigning champions Barça.
The most important thing is that we’re already qualified as group leaders, but as players we always want to win. We told the young players to enjoy and to take the chance. It will be very special for them and we will be helping them. Hopefully we’ll be able to celebrate a win together.
