Bodó and Palicka the heroes in narrow Szeged and PSG wins
The third Match of the Week of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25 was a real thriller until the final second — and in the end Paris Saint-Germain took their ninth win overall against Orlen Wisla Plock in the same number of matches. PSG goalkeeper Andreas Palicka was the well-deserved Player of the Match with two goals and two crucial saves in the last minutes for the 24:23 win.
After Sporting CP and Barça did so on Wednesday, Dinamo Bucuresti kept their clean record in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2024/25, taking their third victory in as many games on Thursday. In contrast, Dinamo’s opponents Eurofarm Pelister along with Fredericia Håndbold Klub, who were defeated at home by Füchse Berlin, remain on zero points. Following a tight match, Richard Bodó was Szeged’s hero against Nantes, as he netted with the buzzer for a 33:32 win.
They're a strong team and played some great handball. I'm proud of us and the way we fought throughout the match — it means a lot, and I'm really happy with how well the boys performed. In the first half, we kept pace with them, playing toe-to-toe. In the second half, they turned up the intensity, and we struggled a bit, especially with our defence and the injuries we’re dealing with in the goalkeeper department. All in all, I’m both happy and proud. We bounced back well from last week's defeat, and that shows the strength and resilience in our team.
I'm very happy with the win, especially because I was surprised at how well Fredericia played. They managed to find gaps in our defence that we weren’t expecting. Fortunately, we were able to respond by finding openings in theirs as well.
It was a hard-fought match, and Fredericia really pushed us in many instances, which makes this victory even more satisfying. We stayed focused and capitalised on the opportunities we created, but it’s clear that they’re a strong team and made us earn the result.
The fans are amazing. Top fans. They are part of the team always — win or lose. Three from three until now in EHF Champions League games. We have to be better, because every game is high intensity handball. We need to win more. To keep this streak going, we need to practice more and more, and never give up when we will also be behind in games.
They had some great counter attacks and positional attacks in the first half. The second, we played a bit better, but we did not respond as well as we could have. The fans are great. Thanks for traveling all the way here. We wanted to make them happy with a win but ultimately we fell short.
I am happy that we won here, in the ORLEN Arena, which is a difficult ground. Both teams undoubtedly left their hearts on the court today, treating the fans to a great show. I am proud of the way we fought and of our defensive attitude.
For sure our best game this season. We finally played like we're supposed to, I think. A few important moments maybe in the second half that didn't fall with us, we didn't do maybe well enough, or Paris did really well — I don't know. But tough game, close game, and we played really well.
