Zagreb and Dinamo stun Aalborg and Plock; Nantes win MOTW
Round 2 of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League group phase got underway on Wednesday. Orlen Wisla Plock could not protect their home court against Dinamo, conceding a surprising 26:28 loss.
But a bigger surprise was Aalborg’s defeat by Zagreb, as the Croatian side broke their duck this season with a 31:23 win.
In the Match of the Week, HBC Nantes secured a historic win against Industria Kielce, limiting the Polish side to only 20 goals, while Füchse Berlin sealed their first win in the EHF Champions League since February 2013, defeating HC Eurofarm Pelister 30:22.
We knew we were up against a great team that does a really good job. From now on we have to focus on continuing to work and not lose faith in ourselves, but also be aware that in the Champions League we are playing great rivals ourselves and to achieve a favourable result we have to play perfectly.
We are very happy with the win after such a difficult match against a rival that has a very good coach and great players. The deciding factor was our defence and the fact that we made fewer mistakes. I am proud of the win with such a warm cheer from the fans.
We lost to a better opponent, who played well for all 60 minutes. I think that the match was broken in the first part, when we fell from a minimal deficit and they punished the mistakes. We missed too many six-metre shots. We still have a lot to play for.
We are happy for the victory in this difficult and hot atmosphere. Emotions were high at the start, but after 15 minutes we picked up the pace. We played a more solid defence and our goalkeeper was in form. In the second half we knew that Eurofarm Pelister could hurt us like against PSG. We gave our maximum and focused a lot on the defence, 22 goals conceded is a good number.
I have to congratulate my players on what they did here today. Incredible on both sides of the court, defence was functioning perfectly, and on the attacking side we took care of the ball. Really an amazing night for us and our fans.
I have to say a well-deserved win for Zagreb today. I don't think they surprised us, but we started off way too slowly, missing from some clear looks. Everything went wrong for us today. Matej Mandic was incredible between the posts, and we know how hard it can be to play here in Zagreb Arena when you're trailing by three goals at the break.
It’s good to be back here for the EHF Champions League. We are happy with the first victory at home, in front of our fans. It was important for us.
We missed too many shots. If we play with motivation, we can be much better in attack. My teammates and I will give everything to be qualified.
