Metz take MOTW to stay unbeaten, Podravka enjoy thrilling win
In round 10 of the EHF Champions League Women 2024/25 Metz Handball confirmed their leader status in group A, winning the Match of the Week against FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria by 26:23. Krim Mercator Ljubljana's agony is extended as they were not able to keep up with CSM Bucuresti in Romania, allowing their opponents to end their winning drought.
Podravka Vegeta are riding high with a six-game unbeaten streak following another exciting finish in Koprivnica and winning against CS Gloria 2018 BN. Györi Audi ETO KC celebrated their 300th game in the EHF Champions League Women with another narrow win against Brest Bretagne Handball.
We are very happy with the result, it wasn’t perfect, but we fought and had a great second half. FTC are a hard to beat opponent, but today we were stronger.
Today’s match was a difficult one. We fought a lot, but Metz were better, that’s how it is sometimes. Luck was not on our side, but I hope we meet again.
Ambros said it very well. You have days when nothing works and days where everything works. It is not funny to have a game like Krim had today as they have a very good team. It was a game where everything worked for us and I’m happy for that.
Congratulations to Helle, CSM played really good today! We came here thinking we could do a good job and take two points but after the first minutes we realized we cannot do this. I don’t know what to say about the game, nothing was working and we tried to fix it during the match but it was worse. Two different teams playing today”.
I congratulate my team on such a difficult game against an excellent and rich team. We didn't have the weight to do something, but when you play at home and know that with a possible victory you are most likely in the round of 16, something always stands in the way and that holds you back. Our defence didn't concede too many goals, but it wasn't at its usual level. The team is maturing and it knows how to take such difficult games to its own advantage. We sneaked into the Champions League through a back door, that's something strange. It's something these girls have earned through work and sacrifice. As well as training for Christmas and New Year.
I want to congratulate my players because they fought all 60 minutes. We played good handball, but I think today the best team didn't win. This is life. I am very angry because we lost this game. We lost some moments in second half when we didn't play collectively, yet individually. In general, in attack we had a good game. In defence we played good, but we didn't have a good defence against their pivot.
This is why we play handball, so we can fight such big battles. This is a huge victory for us, because Brest are an incredibly tough opponent. We needed this success for our confidence after the difficult period and the loss of Kari, so it is certainly good for the team's spirit. In any case, we still have some work to do, for example, to not let the opponent close up when we build a bigger lead during the match. I am proud of the team because we managed to defeat a great opponent.
Of course we are disappointed, because it was a very tough match. Details decided, but we made a lot of mistakes in attack, and our inaccuracies in defence were also punished by the opponent. We are in a very tough group, in which every point counts, so we have to focus on finishing in the best possible place.
