Deciding weekend to deliver EHF FINAL4 participants
The battle for the EHF FINAL4 Women 2025 has reached its final chapter. Only 60 minutes separate four teams in the EHF Champions League Women 2024/25 from a chance to fight for the trophy in the MVM Dome in Budapest.
Metz Handball took control with a convincing three-goal win away from home, while Györi Audi ETO KC and CSM Bucuresti celebrated narrow victories. But the biggest question remains over the clash between FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria and Odense Håndbold, where everything is still wide open after the first leg draw.
It was important that we believed in ourselves in the first match and I’m glad we played such an intense and hard-fought game. Hopefully, we’ll play an even better match on Saturday and make it to the EHF FINAL4.
Ludwigsburg have always been a strong team. If anyone underestimates them, they can get into trouble very quickly. We know this well, which is why we’ve always prepared thoroughly for them, and that’s how we’ve managed to secure the two points each time. In the first match, we missed a lot of clear chances. We had the opportunities, but couldn’t convert them into goals, especially in the second half. Luckily, we also have very good goalkeepers, and that’s one of the main reasons we were able to win the first leg.
We know it won't be easy in Györ. After the result from the first leg, we will not only be playing against a top team, but also in front of over 4,000 spectators. Nevertheless, we know we have a chance. Now it is important to do our homework and prepare well for the return leg.
Recent history against Brest shows us that things can be swept away quite quickly. Within a quarter of an hour, they were already leading by five goals. We are going to start from scratch, with a game to win. Everyone knows that Metz Handball love this kind of encounter; we have been to quite a few quarter-finals together over the last 10 years now. There is no reason to be afraid; we weren't afraid in Brest last week, we weren't afraid in Brest a fortnight ago either.
We need to sort out the little things that went wrong last weekend. We've got some things to sort out, particularly in attack, where we need to lose fewer balls. We need to keep up what we showed in defence. There's no reason why it can't go our way. Three goals down makes up for that and we're going to give it everything we've got on Sunday.
We have a nice and clear prerequisite for the match: win. We can win by one or on penalties, it really does not matter, we have to win. Of course, there are things we have learned from the first leg, that we will apply for this leg, but we also know that CSM are a fantastic team.
