Zagreb take first win, Barça run over Paris
The last round of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League in 2025 opened with a historic victory, as HC Zagreb took their first win in this competition since February — defeating HC Eurofarm Pelister 27:23. Barça and Aalborg remain the main hunters in their groups.
We fought exemplary. We lost the left wing Nicu Negru in the first half, injured, and we had to improvise. We want to thank the fans, we know they wanted more, as we wanted the same. We will analyse the game and see what happens. One win in 10 matches does not look good, but in the last few games we have shown better and better.
Tough away game. I think Dinamo made a good play. Took every speed, everything out of the game and we played so slow, and then we don't get enough speed in our attack. I think we were good in defence, but our attack was not super. But we are very happy for an important win.
What a game. Before it I said that I don't think I've ever been in such a tough situation, but now I feel like this was one of the best victories of my career. We delivered a really good performance, all of us. I have to highlight our goalie Sandro Mestric who defeated them all by himself in the second, basically opening the doors for us to extend the gap and secure this win.
Tough game. We opened it well, and I'd even say we played fairly well on the defensive side of the ball today, however in order to win a Champions League game you have to play well on both sides of the court, and today our offence did not look well. It is definitely something we'll have to work on, and find ways to be more careful, patient, and take better care of the ball.
We had an incredible first half. We really put the game in our favour, with great energy on the counter attack, and defending well. Things weren't going our way, and we took advantage to open the scoring. To be honest, the second half left a bit of a bad taste in our mouths. I think we need to be a bit more focused, but I think we have to congratulate the team; we have to be happy with what we did.
They were clearly the better team today. We are extremely disappointed about the performance, especially the first half. We didn't manage at all to compete with the power and the quality of Barça. I'm very happy about the way we came back in the second half, but in these games it's not enough.
