SUMMARY: Barça with dominant win; Aalborg edge Magdeburg
From 16 teams down to four, and now two — semi-finals day in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2023/24 saw Aalborg secure the first place in the final with a 28:26 win against SC Magdeburg. Barça followed their 2021 final opponents to the trophy match with a near-record victory at the EHF FINAL4 Men.
Barça and Aalborg will battle for the trophy on Sunday at 18:00 CEST, after Kiel and Magdeburg play for third at 15:00 CEST.
It’s great, but the road is not over yet. We did not come here to qualify for the final. We came here to win the title. Today we had a great game. We were able to knock it on the head pretty early and not give them any hope to come back. Our defence was impressive; so were our goalkeepers. I mean, conceding 18 goals at this level is something that you don’t achieve every day. But, as I said, the focus is now on the final.
It hurts, but really, we did not deserve to win. We missed too many open shots right from the start. Emil Nielsen was fantastic and we had such a tough time against him. It’s a very bad moment for us right now. Definitely not what we expected. But Barça has the right attitude, the best goalkeeper, the best defence. And while we might have pretended at some point that we had the chance, they really got the upper hand early and we were not able to turn things over.
It was an amazing match, between two tough teams that played good handball. Maybe it was not the prettiest game ever, but one of the most intense. It was an amazing game to play, especially in such an atmosphere. It’s a dream come true to play the final here. Tonight, we tried something we usually don’t do, a five-one defence, a bit more aggressive, to kill their rhythm and how they approach their attack. I am really satisfied. We also got a lot of good situations, we managed to put the right players in the right situations, and we fought for everything, every fumble, every contact. It’s an amazing feeling to be here with the final ticket. It could have gone both ways, but I feel like we deserved it more tonight.
It’s hard to lose like that, when you have the impression that things could have also gone your way. It hurts, but I feel like we missed a little bit of everything in every area of the game. But at this level, a little bit is actually a huge bit and that makes the difference in the end.
The game so far has been as tense as you would expect an EHF FINAL4 semi-final to be. Left handers have been in the spotlight, with Mads Hoxer and Omar Ingi Magnusson being the top scorers for their teams, but neither of the two was able to help his respective team take the advantage. So far, Mikkel Hansen has delivered a disappointing performance but, who knows, he might key for Aalborg in money-time. On the other hand, Magdeburg have struggled to play fast handball as they usually do. But if they do, SCM might be able to break away for good.
We saw a lot of them [the Kiel-Barça classic] in the Champions League, that’s for sure. It’s a confrontation between two of the biggest clubs in the world. It’s amazing to see them both perform at such a high level and it’s also a great memory for me, as we beat Barça on our way to the trophy in 2020. Maybe this year will be different. We’ll see.
If it means helping my team win the trophy, then perfect, but I don’t focus on that. If I only score two and we win the trophy, then I’ll gladly take it. This team is not about individuals, it’s about the collective strength and how we are able to win as a team, not about who will score 10 and who will score two.