Hunt for crucial points steps up a gear
Unbeaten on their home court, Vipers Kristiansand could eliminate SG BBM Bietigheim from the race for an automatic EHF Champions League Women quarter-finals berth with a win on Saturday in the Match of the Week. Group A leaders CSM Bucuresti may edge closer to a quarter-finals spot in a crunch tie against the in-form team of the group, Odense, who are riding a six-game winning streak.
In group B, all eyes will be on the clash between Team Esbjerg and CS Rapid Bucuresti as the Danish side seeks revenge for their round 4 loss. Powerhouses Metz Handball and Györi Audi ETO KC will try to extend their winning cycle – and if they do so, Györ would become the first team in EHF Champions League history to reach the 200-win mark. Also, either Kastamonu Belediyesi GSK or Storhamar Handball Elite could end their long winless period.
We have the chance to put Bietigheim seven points behind us, and we have the loss in the away game as extra motivation. Let's hope that we have learned our lesson from that match, and that we can be at our best on Saturday. It will for sure be a battle if we want to take two points.
Away against the defending champions - this game will be a highlight for us. Perhaps the clear role in defence will unleash more strength in us. Kristiansand are an absolute top team and play at an extremely high level. However, our home win in the first match showed us that nothing is impossible.
We are on the rise. A very difficult period is behind us, a very difficult start to the season. We are a renewed team in a very difficult group. After all these defeats, we managed to pick ourselves up, stay positive and motivated, which we did. We showed the true character of the team when it mattered most.
Last time against CSM we lost, but the difference in the final score wasn’t as terrifying as many maybe expected. We still want to play fast and run a lot, in that case we don’t want to change anything. If we play the same as we did last week, we can hope for a better final result.
Looking forward to meeting a good opponent like Odense. I think it will be a very exciting game because of the quality in both teams. We are playing home and we are very excited about feeling again the support from our fans.
We are on a good streak, have caught the rhythm, play good matches, and offer good resistance to our opponents in the Champions League. With our solid 5-1 defence, which has been working well lately, and patient attacking play without technical errors - because they are a team that punishes every mistake - we can also stand up well to Györ. We are overjoyed with the first point in the Champions League that we won against Kastamonu, which is an added motivation and incentive for us.
We are really looking forward for the match against Storhamar as it is our chance to put on in contention to proceed to the knockout matches of the Champions League. It will be a huge result for us to win this match. We really need everyone to come to the match and support us. We need it and i will be like having an extra player on the court.
It will be a difficult and very demanding match, but also
a nice game to play, the team has clear objectives and now we only
depend on ourselves to take another step forward. We have to keep
focused on playing our game and continue to show our best version. I
think the team is doing a very good job and we want to continue in this
line.
