Paris and Kielce aiming high in round 12
Five play-off tickets could already be snatched up come Thursday night in group A. GOG and Dinamo could secure theirs if the Danish side beat Plock, which also helps Dinamo as the Romanian side beat Plock twice this season and would stay above them on equal points. Paris could secure one of the two top spots if they beat Dinamo, while Veszprém will with a win in Magdeburg in Match of the Week.
The match between FC Porto and HC PPD Zagreb was called off due to travelling difficulties of the away team at the Frankfurt airport.
In group B, Kielce can book their spot in the quarter-finals if they take at least one point against Aalborg on home court. In this case, Nantes (against Elverum) and Kiel (in Szeged) would be out of the race for the second position. Top team Barça - with the quarter-final berth secured - can extend their run to 21 unbeaten EHF Champions League matches when they travel to Celje.
It's almost like a final. With a win, we secure our spot in next stage of the Champions League tournament, and at the same time Wisla can get very close with a win. So it's a very important game for both teams.
It will be a tough battle. Wisla Plock is a team with which we have fought many big battles, and we have not always succeeded. Fortunately, we usually have the upper hand at home, and we hope we do this time as well.
GOG are playing very well this season. This is a team that won their last match in the Veszprém Arena. Not every team can manage this kind of result in a place like Veszprém.
Dinamo are always a very difficult team to face. We were, however, able to negotiate the first leg well with a good gap (6 goals) already at half-time (36:29 final score). We are coming off a big win after some adversity in Zagreb last week against another tough side in our group. Bucharest have just lost to Porto by one and will want to bounce back, so they come to Paris with great intentions.
Paris Saint Germain is the leader of the group A and have amazing players. Will be very complicated for us, but it is, in any case, a handball match. Our objectives are realistic. It is not easy to win outside, as we saw in Porto.
We’ve had a great team dynamic since we won against Bucuresti in Dragao. We want to keep winning so that we can give a good image and keep believing in how far we can go in the Champions League.
MOTW: SC Magdeburg (GER) vs Telekom Veszprém HC (HUN)
Thursday, 16 February, 20:45 CET, live on EHFTV
- with three games left to play, Veszprém are second in the group with 16 points, while Magdeburg are third with just two points behind
- both teams have already secured their play-offs berth but can hope to jump to the quarter-finals by finishing among the best two sides of the group
- the first tie between Veszprém and Magdeburg this season finished in a draw (35:35)
- Magdeburg have not lost a home game in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League Men since round 3 and a defeat against Paris (22:29)
- only one goal separates the two teams’ offence. So far, Veszprém have scored 357 goals, one more than Magdeburg
- last weekend, Magdeburg took the points in the Bundesliga in Lemgo (34:28), while Veszprem also won their Hungarian league game in Balatonfuredi (41:20)
If we want to win, we have to stop not just (Kristjansson) but all of the other quality players, for example Kay Smits, Weber or Damgaard. This team knows what they want, they play a match every two days, they are in a good shape. It will be a normal match, but it will be tough.
We want to maintain good performances, and we are all looking forward to playing Barca. As we can see, the spectators are also keen to see Wednesday's showdown, which is a pleasure. It's always great to play in front of a big crowd, especially in your home arena, which gives you a much-needed boost from the stands.
We need only one point to get the promotion directly to the quarter-finals. Now it is impossible to get the first position, but we want to get that second spot, and that’s the plan for Wednesday. We must pay attention to Sebastian Barthold and Kristian Bjørnsen; they are very fast winger players, and counterattacks are their strength
