Hansen shines on Aalborg CL debut
After 10 years at Paris Saint-Germain, Mikkel Hansen returned to his home-country and in his first Machineseeker EHF Champions League match for new club Aalborg Håndbold.
Hansen was the key figure with 10 goals and four assists. He steered the Danish runners-up to a narrow 36:32 victory in their opener against the young guns of RK Celje Pivovarna Laško, who produced a brave and creative performance.
Group B:
Aalborg Håndbold (DEN) vs. RK Celje Pivovarna Laško (SLO) 36:32 (20:17)
- backed by the goals of the Swedish EHF EURO champions Lukas Sandell and Felix Claar - their top scorers last season - Aalborg easily pulled ahead to 11:5 and kept this distance until 16:10
- with Alex Vlah in strong form, Celje played without pressure and adapted their defence to reduce the gap to only two goals at 17:19
- after the break, Celje continued at a high level, played creative in attack, and remained on an equal level until minute 53 and 29:31
- in the final stages it was more or less a solo display from Aalborg’s Norwegian new boy Kristian Bjørnsen and his three consecutive goals for the decisive 35:29 scoreline
- Vlah became Celje’s best scorer with eight goals, one strike ahead of Gal Mrguc, while Hansen topped the scorer list on 10 strikes. Sandell netted seven times
The different roles of the mastermind
He started with goals from the penalty line, then turned into a classical playmaker with great passes and assists before he continued scoring. Mikkel Hansen played many different roles in his first Machineseeker EHF Champions League match for Aalborg Håndbold - and completed his mission successfully.
He is the mastermind in attack and defended most of the time from the unfamiliar right-wing position. Aalborg has a huge advantage as when Mikkel Hansen rested, they still have his “back-up” Aron Palmarsson. But when on court, Hansen was a true leader - in all departments.
I think we won on the tempo. We scored a lot of easy goals today. We did not have any problems creating good chances but when we play like we did today in defence we will have some problems. We scored 36 goals and that was enough today.
