Brest and Györ maintain perfect record; Podravka and Odense share spoils
Round 3 of the EHF Champions League Women 2025/26 opened with four exciting matches on Saturday – and three of them were played in Group B. In an exciting Match of the Week, Brest Bretagne Handball claimed their third win, this time against CSM Bucuresti (34:31), while HC Podravka and Odense Håndbold dropped their first points in a mutual encounter (31:31).
We made too many mistakes against a team that punishes every error. The biggest problem was the start of the game, as we missed seven clear chances and a penalty in the first 10 minutes. After that, we switched to playing seven against six and started scoring, but they kept responding with goals into the empty net. Our goal was to concede no more than 30 goals and to score over 20, to make the defeat more acceptable. All players had their chance, we created opportunities, but we showed too much respect to the opponent and their goalkeeper. Fear crept into our game and our shots were not at the level they should have been.
Last season we dropped a point in Podgorica. I believe OTP Group Buducnost now have a stronger team, and we had full respect for our opponent. We are very happy with the victory, as we played an almost perfect game.
It was a stressful match, but this victory can mean a lot going forward, because there’s a huge difference between winning and losing. In the end, what made the difference that we managed to stay calm and did what we wanted.
This was a fantastic match from my girls, maybe the best defensive match of my career, but we’ve unfortunately seen experienced international players, and we have never been in this situation before. The last five minutes they came through and beat us. This is the experience we have to learn. I’m very proud of the girls and today’s match. It’s a good team with all national players, so I’m very satisfied with the game but very disappointed. I’m happy but sad at the same time.
I would like to congratulate the coaches and the girls. We prepared well for this game. But it's not easy to play without Matea, Klara, Mija, Kristina... Nor to train. We haven't been around much this week and it's hard to try something in defence or attack. I think we played a great attacking match, but we can do much better in defence, especially this game with the pivot. But it's just the beginning. We have one more Champions League game before the international break. We will concentrate as much as possible and aim for a point or two. Once again, congratulations to the whole team.
From our side it was a very rough game. We made many mistakes and we had four goals in the second half and actually had a good possibility to win. But we started to make mistakes again. In defence we were struggling the whole match. In the end, we had chances, but we didin't take them. We are a little bit disappointed with the draw, but we have to respect Podravka how well they played today. Katarina Pandža was difficult to manage in our defence and that's why we had so many problems. This wasn't good enough and we have to have more discipline in the defence. We are always a team that likes to play with speed, but when our opponents are scoring so many goals, it's difficult to have the speed in the match.
Yes, we created the gap each time at the beginning of both halves. We had a slight dip at the end of the first half when we made the rotations. Everyone played their part tonight. The girls held strong in defence and in attack. A well-managed match from the team. A successful test tonight at home, it was an important game. A tough battle against a very experienced and powerful team. It’s a great result for us tonight.
Firstly, I would like to congratulate Brest for tonight’s match and for their victory. Of course, I am a bit upset and frustrated after this game. We started off fairly well but afterwards it became more complicated. We didn’t play some situations well enough. Today was really very difficult for us, and trying to come back into the game was hard.
