Magdeburg face Aalborg; Plock welcome PSG in MOTW
While Orlen Wisla Plock hope for their first points of the season in the MOTW against Paris Saint-Germain, Sporting CP and Veszprém HC — who are on four points each — duel in Lisbon. There are two premieres in group A: Frederica Håndbold Klub and Füchse Berlin meet for the first time, as do Dinamo Bucuresti and Eurofarm Pelister.
In group B, the only team with four points, Barça, will try to get their third win in Kielce. At the other end of the spectrum, Kolstad are already in need of points before hosting Zagreb on Wednesday night. Aalborg and Magdeburg will also battle in a rematch of last season’s semi-final.
It's going to be a great European night. We are well aware of the difficulties we will encounter ahead. We know the power of our opponent, one of the biggest clubs in European handball. But obviously we feel like we're capable of bringing joy to our fans and ourselves. We have a lot of respect for Veszprém's history, but we want them to respect us too. It's going to be a great game.
I think that Sporting have played great handball not only recently, but already in the last three years. It is a young, but experienced team, with an incredible number of talented players. The squad is made up of quality handball players and I think Ricardo Costa manages his team well and knows exactly what he has in his hands. Sporting's game changed a lot during his coaching. They deserve to be in the Champions League. I enjoy watching their matches.
Fredericia is a team that is difficult to assess. You shouldn't underestimate them. They have a fast style of play in attack and at the same time they try to get their back players into position. We have to show consistency in defence over 60 minutes and stay in our system of play.
Füchse Berlin are one of the strongest teams in the world. They play very fast handball and can be difficult to defend against.
We are really looking forward to the match against PSG on Thursday. They have a strong and well-coordinated team, which always makes for a great challenge. We’ve been working hard and are ready to put up a good fight. It’s going to be an exciting game for both the players and the fans
It is, of course, a very important game for us. After the semi-final last season, the team has a lot of confident going into this match. But it is still very early in the season, so I am looking forward to see where the two clubs stand. We have the game in Zagreb in our minds and really want to show that we are better than we showed. And at home in front of our home crowd really anything can happen.
Aalborg has a very strong team and it's the next tough game in the Champions League after our home [Bundesliga] game against Kiel.
We are looking forward to another exciting encounter against Zagreb! A physical, tactical and skilled young team. We know that we have to win our home games in this year's group stage and we also have great desire to collect our first two points of the season.
The best club in the history of handball is Barcelona, then Kiel and further Veszprém. When you play against teams like these, you have nothing left to lose. There is nothing to cry about. On Wednesday, we want to fight for two points. The atmosphere will be remarkable and for our part we will do anything to keep two points at home.
We couldn't train that much. People are tired, but all teams involved in European competitions and that had players at the Olympics are in the same situation. Kielce are a very difficult game. The have been in the final two of the previous three years. They have some injuries but it’s going to be very tough to get some points there. We will have to play a really good match and that is our goal.
I hope that we can handle the fact that a lot of people think that for the first time in the Champions League this year we are the favourites. That can be difficult for a new group to deal with, especially when we play against a team that beat PSG by seven goals in the super cup final recently.
