Berlin and Aalborg meet in MOTW as race for Cologne enters quarter-finals
The play-offs delivered six confrontations full of suspense and high-quality handball, and you can expect more of that when the Machineseeker EHF Champions League restarts on Wednesday night.
The four teams which qualified directly for the quarter-finals — Barça, One Veszprém HC, Sporting CP and Aalborg Håndbold — will all play away, aiming to keep their chances alive ahead of the home leg next week.
Sporting will travel to Nantes and will try to keep their momentum going, while titleholders will play in Szeged, a team full of confidence after qualifying against Paris in the play-offs. The two other contests — between Berlin and Aalborg on one side, and Magdeburg and Veszprém on the other — look as undecided, and are promising a thrilling second leg.
We're really looking forward to tomorrow's match. Veszprém is one of the best teams in the Champions League. They have players like Remili and [Sergei] Kosorotov with incredible individual quality. Their defence around Fabregas is very difficult to play against. Coach Xavier Pasqual's style is evident. We'll give all we have. We're very proud of where we currently stand, given our injury history. We want to try to stay in the competition for as long as possible. Cologne is a huge goal for us. For me, the Champions League FINAL4 is the biggest handball event in the world.
Our goal is clear: To win tomorrow's match. That gives us faith and self-confidence for the return leg. Veszprém simply have the advantage of playing the return leg at home.
One of the most important matches of the season is coming up. Since the beginning of the season, we've been working hard to get to this point and test ourselves. We are sure that a very tough and intense game awaits us against one of the best teams of recent years. It is true that they haven’t performed at the same level this season as before, but I still believe they are very dangerous, especially at home.
I am extremely proud of this team, of this club. I think we have broken down many barriers and, having arrived here and two games away from making even more history, the possibility of being in Cologne is a dream for everyone. We can transform this dream into something that could become real, knowing that in Nantes we will have 60 very difficult minutes against one of the best teams in the world defending.
We’re on a mission — we all want to go to Cologne. But Lisbon is an amazing team, with incredible players and skills. Of course, the Costa brothers stand out, but don’t forget the rest of the squad — they all play great handball. When you watch their games, there’s no doubt they fully deserved their second-place finish [in the group].
Cologne is the craziest place in handball. The last time we were there was during the Covid period… Of course, I want to go back to LANXESS arena with its unbelievable atmosphere where anything can happen. The team is confident. We want to show who we are from the first minute.
Aalborg are a top team in Europe with a very broad squad. We have to prepare for a lot of high-quality players, and in Sander Sagosen they have signed a world-class player, which emphasises Aalborg's ambitions. This also puts a lot of pressure on them, but we are also in a good shape. Everyone knows what their role and task is.
After a short break, I am very excited to be back in the Champions League for Aalborg. Füchse have some really good players we hope to stop in their fast attacks and make them work more for the goals. We have a wider team and hopefully we can use that as an advantage.
