Esbjerg enjoy historic MOTW win over Györ; Podravka secure play-off spot
The penultimate round of the EHF Champions League Women 2025/26 group stage opened with four encounters on Saturday, including the Match of the Week in group A. In Denmark, Team Esbjerg proved too strong for the titleholders Györ Audi ETO KC, who had already booked their quarter-final ticket before this game.
In Group B, Brest Bretagne Handball and CSM Bucuresti claimed victories and stayed in fight for the direct quarter-final spots, while HC Podravka secured their play-off berth.
We entered the match with a perfect balance in what we wanted to do tactically on both ends of the court. We also had a great goalkeeper performance in the first half, when we played some of the best handball we have ever played in the time I have been here.
They outplayed us everywhere. I'm very disappointed with the way we were acting and were not together, we were leaving each other out and our defence was on a very low level. In the second half there was a different character of the game of course. We were stepping up and we had a higher efficiency. We were also much, much better in defence, but after 40 minutes the game was over. We tried to find something, but today it was really, really hard.
It was the last home match of the group stage. We wanted to control the game, and we managed to do that throughout the whole match. We were able to rotate players. They’re a good team with a very strong collective spirit, a team that never gives up, so it’s good that we managed to extend the lead. We really wanted to share this game with everyone. It was a very good performance tonight.
Congratulations to Brest. They are on top of the league. We knew it was going to be a tough game. We tried to focus on things we were going to do, but they were too good today. It was a nice experience, I think, with the hall full of spectators. This is our first time in Champions League, so this is something new for everyone.
Before the match I saw this game as a 50-50. We had to find new solutions because we have a lot of injuries. CSM deserved the win, except for 15 minutes in the first half, they were sharper. We had too many unbalanced passes and struggled too much in attack.
I really expected a match like this, a tough 60 minutes. In the last 15 minutes, we were almost enough in front so we gave a little bit of space to all players. I am so happy and proud how they handled the pressure. I am really happy because we made a big win today without Gina. It was a big loss for us, of course, but we did this for her.
Every girl, from the first to the last, gave 100 per cent. There were ups and downs, but we had the game in our hands, we held on. Our whole season has been like this, we are missing and we are patching things up. But we are a team that is blessed with togetherness. Whoever is missing, we can do without them. A great desire and motive inspired me on goal, but above all I would like to praise my girls who did their job in front of me for the entire 60 minutes, while I just followed up on them in key moments. We are not yet aware of what we have done, we will be.
Of course it's hard to find words because we are very disappointed. We came here to win and wanted the next phase of the Champions League. It was a tough game. The one goal difference shows how close the match was. The most difficult and painful thing was the efficiency because we missed a lot of shots and easy goals, like when we were one on one with the goalkeeper. We lost a lot of balls. In this kind of matches it is about doing less mistakes than the opponent. Unfortunately we made more than Podravka.
