Aalborg host Nantes; Sporting and PSG aim to bounce back
Round 9 of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2025/26 is set to bring exciting clashes on Wednesday and Thursday, with the Match of the Week bringing world-class action between two powerhouses in Berlin.
Nantes are one of the teams we battle against in the run to become top two in the group. They surprisingly lost last week and that can be a huge advantage for us, even though I now believe they come to Aalborg really hungry. We need to get a good start to the game, and with our amazing fans I think we can take the win.
We know what’s at stake in this match; if we win, there’s a 99 per cent chance we’ll play in the next round. Before leaving for Bucharest, I said that Dinamo is a better team than it seems. The players they have make an impression, and they also have an experienced coach who has his own vision for the team. In the games against Sporting and Veszprém, they already showed good performances.
We know that it will be dificult to play against Kielce. We also lost against them at home, but after this victory against Nantes, we have the power to win there and to be competitive, to go to the other phase of this competition. We know it will be a really difficult job, but we have a chance and we will fight until the end.
We will approach this game with great seriousness. We are coming off two consecutive defeats in the Champions League and we want to reverse this trend. We remain focused on our objective and we are certain of what we need to do to achieve victory against a great opponent. We know that Kolstad wants to present a different image and will want to prove that last place in the group does not reflect the true quality of the team.
Another tough match coming up for us. I am looking forward to facing one of the best home teams in the world and also longing to hear the Sporting club anthem ahead of the match. Even if it is a tough match, I fully believe we have a chance to fight for the points.
Veszprém at the moment is a huge challenge, they look better and better. Especially their offense keeps improving. We will for sure get a lot of challenges in defence. But, the other way around, we got a good experience in Veszprém where we got an amazing performance by Dejan Milosavljev. But we cannot expect that again. We have to find our way to get control of the game.
Good performance is obviously essential. Last year’s away match was quite up and down — it would be nice to avoid that this time. We have to control the game, which of course is difficult against such a strong opponent. Giving up is not an option, we want to win — at all costs.
Everyone knows what kind of team is Magdeburg, what kind of players they have, how long they have been together. They know their system and respect it and in some matches you can see the difference between them and the other teams. I think they are the best team in the world right now. If I knew how to surprise Magdeburg, I would definitely say that we will win on Wednesday. But we will give our best, together with our audience. We have by far the best fans in the Champions League and we will give everything against Magdeburg.
Pelister showed against Szeged how difficult they are to compete against at their home court. We have to be prepared for that to succeed. Of course, we want to continue our winning streak and remain undefeated.
Barça are one of the best teams in the world, with top players in every position. It will be a fantastic handball experience in Arena Svendborg. We’re chasing a major upset, and we know we’ll have to be at our absolute best to compete.
We are in a great run of wins and we have to try to carry this momentum until the winter break, now that every point matters. GOG is a tough team to beat. They have a lot of different tools and if they have a good day it will be very hard for us. However, we come from a nice win in Paris and I have confidence in my teammates' performance.
We are fully aware of how important this match will be for us, and we also know that although HC Zagreb have not earned a point yet, we are facing a very unpleasant opponent. They have gone through a coaching change, and a new voice in the locker room always brings fresh impulses. Fortunately, more and more of us are back, several of our injured players have recovered, and we are in great form, having confidently won our last three matches.
Another game, another chance for us to deliver a solid performance and try to win our first points. Against a team like Szeged, we are surely going to need a good one if we want to take points back home with us. We'll prepare as best as we can and see what it brings us in the end.
The match in Poland is still in our minds — we want to put things right. That result gives us extra motivation to respond at home. They’re a tough, physical team, so we need to come in with intensity from the first minute, keep our rhythm, and rely on the energy at Coubertin to push us. It’s a key game for us in the group, and we’re determined to show a completely different face this time.
We are going to face a team that is always a formidable opponent at home, as demonstrated by their recent match against Barcelona, in which the result and play in the first half did not go entirely their way, yet they managed to almost turn the match around. This shows that they are very dangerous, despite several unfavourable results this season. We have to be very focused for the entire 60 minutes if we want to achieve a positive result.
