Perfect start for three new coaches on night of the goalkeepers
Several debuts imprinted the first two Machineseeker EHF Champions League matches on Thursday night. Fredericia played the first international match in the club’s history, but were beaten by another debutant, as David Davis led Dinamo Bucuresti to an easy-going win, 37:28, in his first top-flight match as the Romanian side’s coach. Szeged’s new coaches Michael Apelgren and Jonas Källman started their Champions League mission with a 31:29 victory against SC Magdeburg.
The third victorious new coach was Xavi Pascual. His new club Veszprém took a close but deserved win at Füchse Berlin, meaning both Thursday night duels featuring German teams ended in favour of their Hungarian opponents.
We caught our rhythm a bit harder but when we did, second half and end of first half were good. I feel very experienced for all kinds of situations here. I came here when I was 23. This season I will be 30. I was here where Dinamo was nowhere in Europe, but now we are. Interesting atmosphere and process. I just hope that we can help the team however we can.
A lot of mistakes today. Their goalkeeper was very good today. Fantastic atmosphere. We like it. We like the challenge.
We must figure out what we did bad and good and prepare for the next games.
The team really needed a match like this. We showed what we are capable of and that it will be hard to beat us in this arena. What we delivered in the second half, we need to maintain and carry forward, but we still have room to improve.
We are disappointed. The biggest problem is that we played two completely different halves. In the first, we attacked well and defended well, and in the second, we tried to play the same way, but it didn’t work. I don’t know why yet. Of course, Mikler was excellent, but that can’t be the only reason.