Brest win big in MOTW, Neagu becomes all-time top scorer
A fantastic defensive display in the second half of the Match of the Week against HB Ludwigsburg lifted Brest Bretagne Handball to the fourth consecutive win of the season, 33:26. Team Esbjerg also delivered a good attacking performance to seal a 39:32 win against Rapid Bucuresti.
Cristina Neagu scored 10 goals to reach top spot in the competition's all-time scoring list and also helped CSM Bucuresti beat Nykøbing Falster Håndbold. Buducnost and Györi Audi ETO KC won a point each in a tight, high-quality affair.
I would like to congratulate CSM, first of all. After this game I think we proved that we have a good level to play in the Champions League. I think the atmosphere is always great in Bucharest and I am always happy to come back here.
It was a game that was up and down and I am happy that we won. I am also Danish and I am happy that Jakob is doing a good job with the team and that helps Danish handball. The most important thing is that we won today, I am happy with the win and I am happy that danish handball has a team like Nykøbing.”
It was really good, I am so proud of this team. It is a really good feeling to win here. Ludwigsburg played well too, they made it hard for us. Defensively we did a good job, which enabled us to score some easy goals.
Rollercoaster is a good description for this game. We made too many mistakes in some parts of the game. Our opponents are not stupid, they analyse us and try to neutralise our strong points, but surely we need to work on our focus and concentration.
We are, of course, happy with the result and our offence today. The players followed the game plan which had a good effect in the game. We were a bit troubled with their 7 vs 6 in offence where they created many chances, but we are overall very satisfied with the game.
We played against a good team, that played well today. In the first half they were able to punish many of our mistakes, and in the second half we did not find good solutions in the 7 vs 6 in the beginning. They were able to run fast breaks which gave us some problems. The same thing happened against Ludwigsburg, so it is something we have to improve.
I am so proud of the team, we tried to slow them down as much as we could, we didn't change much. Hauge was excellent. We deserved this point.
Buducnost played to perfection, we conceded only 23 goals, but there were many attacks in which we did not show patience. We had a problem with the defense of Buducnost, but a draw is a fair result.
