Gidsel equals 17-year-old mark, Aarhus celebrate historic win
A stellar performance from Mathias Gidsel highlighted the second half of round 3 in the EHF Champions League Men, as his record-tying 17 goals against FC Porto (40:32) put Füchse Berlin second in their group. After One Veszprém HC and SC Magdeburg on Wednesday, Barça became the third team to pick up the maximum six points from their opening three matches thanks to a comfortable 34:27 win against Dinamo Bucuresti.
Aalborg Håndbold also remain unbeaten after their 33:23 victory in Zagreb, while HBC Nantes suffered their first defeat of the season at MT Melsungen (28:23). SAH - Aarhus celebrated their first-ever win in the competition by defeating Montpellier Handball 36:32. Round 3 will conclude with the Highlight Match on Saturday, when OTP Bank - PICK Szeged (HUN) host Sporting Clube de Portugal.
Aside from the win, what I’ll take away from today is that the atmosphere was truly amazing. That means a great deal to us players. We don’t take that for granted. I’m very proud of our fans and the club for creating such an incredible atmosphere today. The fans were the players of the game today.
We did everything to win this game, but Berlin is one of the best teams in Europe. We keep working and will do better. They played very fast so it was not easy for us.“
Wisla deserved their victory. We struggled a lot in attack and did not have the right solutions. We were perhaps at our most effective when we played with four backcourt players and without a line player, but that system requires a great deal of energy and constant substitutions. We did not find the right answer, either through our rotation or through changes in the line-up.
The atmosphere here is fantastic, and the supporters are amazing, constantly supporting their team. The last time I was here, if I am not mistaken, was in 2017, and I know very well what it is like to play in this atmosphere. Our team showed great character and maturity throughout the entire 60 minutes. The season is long, and this is only the third round, but we have won two very important points.
Congratulations to my team on a great game. This is the Champions League – the best and toughest competition in Europe. What mattered today was not just the win against this top-tier team from Nantes, but above all the two points for the next stage of this tournament.
That was not a good game from us today. We missed too many good opportunities and had too many problems today, especially on in the attack.
It is difficult to find the right words, and losing by 10 goals is certainly not good. In the second half, we had several chances to reduce the gap to two goals, but we failed to do so, and that was when we lost our momentum. Each of us needs to look at ourselves, see what went wrong, and all of us, from the first to the last, have to be better next week.
We played brilliantly after a few weaker performances, and that is exactly what we needed. We did not give Zagreb any breathing space. We knew we had to play like that from the first minute if we wanted to win, and that is exactly what we did. We are happy and satisfied, and now we move forward.
We haven’t been stable during the whole game, but it’s normal after a defeat last week. We got the points, which was the most important, but we can do better and we will do better. Our team was way more solid in defence tonight and that’s the way we have to follow.
I expected a champion reaction by Barça after their defeat last week and it happened. I’m not happy because we lost, but I’m okay with coming here, to one of biggest stages in Handball, and doing this performance. We are in a long process, improving step by step, as we have a lot of young players.
It was a great match. We didn’t get off to the best start, but we fought our way back and made a flying start to the second half. They came back at us, but we pulled away again. We showed great adaptability, and there were a lot of positives in our performance. The atmosphere was fantastic too. A strong home advantage can make all the difference.
I'm disappointed because we had the game in our hands, but we let it slip away. We made too many mistakes, and SAH took full advantage of them, especially with their fast breaks. We struggled to get back into defence, and that ultimately cost us the game.
