Brest beat Odense in MOTW; FTC and CSM extend winning runs
Round 11 of the EHF Champions League Women 2025/26 opened on Saturday with three encounters, all in Group B. In the Match of the Week, Brest Bretagne Handball proved too strong for Odense Håndbold and consolidated their top position, while FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria climbed to the second place, and CSM Bucuresti also won.
Our attack was effective, but defence was the key. It defined our game. We stayed tight at the back, and that’s what brought us the victory today. It was important that we play on our level, with our speed, because during the first half Krim was able to slow us down. This was the difference between the two halves.
I'm actually proud of how we went. We were not here with the full team, including some minor injuries and absences inside the team. But I am extremely satisfied with the first half. Unfortunately, comparing today to the previous matches, the defensive phase was the one that was the stronger part of our game.
We managed to stay consistent throughout the entire match. We were able to take advantage of the absences on the other side tonight. We played a very strong attacking game, finding a lot of solutions, and we were also very solid defensively. It was a complete performance. We’re really happy with our match it was a great evening, with an amazing atmosphere in a sold out arena.
We played in a great atmosphere. Brest were very strong tonight, with a very solid defence, and their line players were very effective. It was a clear victory for Brest today. The level was very high, and congratulations to them for that.
We were further burdened by the lack of a left winger, as well as a narrowed rotation, against an extremely strong team that had been off-balance all week and focused only on this match. Despite all our problems, the first 15 minutes were even, we were even leading. In the end, we reduced the big gap, showed fighting spirit and came to a bearable -5.
Podravka have a lot of problems with the player list and we knew about this. They fought all the way and it is good to have games like this because they didn't give up. We were good in the first half. Maybe not in the beginning, but after that we fixed our defence and we ran in front a lot. The second part of the second half was not good in the defence and I'm not satisfied with that. We scored a lot of goals, but we could score more. The last part of the game was not good. We need to continue, but most importantly we have two new points.
