Five teams face all-or-nothing match in last round
A dramatic finish is guaranteed when the group phase of the EHF European League Women 2023/24 concludes over the weekend. Three of the eight quarter-final spots are still open, and five teams have a chance to grab one of those.
I think we have learned a lot from the European matches. In the European League, it is about many other things than just being a good handball team. We meet other referees, playing styles and just generally clubs and fans. It does a lot in a tournament like this, and you therefore also learn how important it is.
The standings are not lying, our opponent is the leader of our group, who already qualified to the quarter-finals. Storhamar play a modern, fast handball, so we will have to work very hard to play a good match with them, but we would like to surprise our fans with a good performance, who travelled to Denmark and Croatia and they always support us.
We’re of course disappointed over the situation that we can’t reach the quarterfinal but we will do everything we can to finish this in a good way. We love to play at our home court, in front of our supporters and Braila is a very good team with a lot of good players so we expect a hard and intense fight.
They are a good and strong team, we know that it will be a hard game but we will follow our plan and strategy and I'm sure that we will show a great teamwork and a deserved game to watch.
Playing the last match of the group in front of our own supporters is always a big challenge. Our goal is to finish with a win and to invite our supporters for the quarter-final. We are happy that we played a pretty good group phase and now we are looking forward with emotions and pleasure for our opponents in the quarter-final.
We want to finish the group with a victory, especially since we are playing in front of our own supporters and I am convinced that the hall will be full. We do not think that we have already won the group, we will treat the match with the utmost seriousness.
It will be a very tough game. Gloria is the absolute top favourite. But we're going there with a lot of confidence. We'll enjoy this game and then we'll see what comes out of it in the end.
The game against Lublin is a really important one. In the last two games in the European League, we have not played as good as I know we can. Now it is about time to step up and show to our fans, the club and ourselves that we can do better.
We have every possibility to reach the quarter-finals on Saturday. But it requires that we keep focused and play our game. We know what’s at stake, and there is also a possibility that this season's European League finishes here.
Having an opportunity to qualify for the quarter-finals before the last round is a huge accomplishment as a team. We are very happy, but we are ambitious and we will fight to obtain a qualification that could make history
After the last games, we have high morale and hopes of a positive result at home. We definitely want to win and have a good game. We want to rise to the level of the opponent, a very good one, and improve our game for the upcoming matches in the championship. I think defence and goalkeeping can be decisive.
Unfortunately, our fate is not in our own hands, but we are conscientiously preparing for Targu Jiu. We want to win our last group game, we hope it will mean progress.