One quarter-final and one play-off ticket left to decide
After 13 rounds, little is left to be decided in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2022/23. Three of the four teams bound for the quarter-finals are already known, while all the play-off tickets but one have found an owner.
Paris are one of the best teams in Europe. They have world-class players in every position. It will be a tough match with a great atmosphere. For us, it is really important to win against PSG and get direct ticket to the quarter finals. They will play without extra pressure. We have time to analyse them and prepare well against them.
I definitely don't think it will be easy, even if we won the reverse game in Zagreb. Since then they have beaten both Veszprém and Wisla Plock, so there is no doubt that it is a good team that we will meet. We will try to play our own game, where we keep a high tempo in the attacking part, because they have one of the best defences in the group and we need to open that up.
We created the chance to skip the round of 16 on our own. And we want to use this together with our fans on Thursday.
The match against Porto is currently the most important match for us. We still have a chance to pass the group, so we will prepare well for the match and our goal is to win.
We are not in an easy situation, as several of our players are injured and ill. Every day we have fewer players, so it is very difficult to prepare for the match. We are looking for a win against Nantes because we want to get another two points. The most important thing is to prepare as efficiently as possible with those players that we have at our disposal.
There is no doubt that we want to end the group phase in the best possible way. We have had some trouble keeping the same high level through the games, and against a team like Celje, we need to play concentrated during the whole match. They have surprised multiple times this season beating Kiel and came very close on doing the same against Barca previously.
We are Barça and we have to win all the games we play, no matter if we are already first. We will have less pressure but these games are always huge. I am sure both teams want to win and maybe we will play more time with players who did not play that often. But our goal is to get those two points.
