Romanian and German duels in the spotlight
While group I features an all-German clash between Rhein-Neckar and Hannover, HBC Nantes will try to keep their winning streak going at home against Zabrze.
In group II, Nexe eye second straight win in the main round with new coaching staff. Skjern Handbold travel to Partille to face IK Sävehof in a Scandinavian derby.
In group III, the round 1 winners from Flensburg and Schaffhausen are tested in tough away challenges – and Vojvodina’s new arrival Petar Djordjic will face his former club.
The Romanian derby between Dinamo Bucuresti and CSM Constanta highlights the round in group IV, while reigning champions Füchse Berlin aim to extend their winning streak in the competition to 11 matches when they host Sporting CP.
We got few injured players but we have to adapt ourselves and find solutions. We are going to play against a Polish team with lot of character. It’s going to be a big battle, at home.
We know that Nantes have huge ambitions this season, but we will definitely not go out on the court with our heads down. We want to show our best side and we want to show our character.
Hannover are certainly an unpleasant team with a strong squad. We need a very good tempo game from a well-organised defence. Therefore, discipline is very important against Hannover.
Swedish teams always feel that they’ve got nothing to lose, but everything to win, when playing against Danish teams. Their league is stronger than ours, so for us this will be a big challenge
Every European match is a handball festival for us. We have already done a lot by being among the best 16 teams in the EHF European League. I expect a very difficult match, we will do our best to match Nexe, who are considered the favourites. We will give our maximum in every European match, but especially at home, and try to surprise our opponents.
A very difficult night is behind us, after an unexpected defeat in the domestic championship, we have an extremely difficult match ahead of us. We will play against a team that is very good, especially when they play at home. We did a good training and video analysis in order to better detect their strengths and weaknesses. Definitely, we have to play much more aggressive and stronger in defence and try to correct the mistakes we made in the last game.
What can we say about a team that has semi-finalists and finalists of the World or European Championship? A team that, in my opinion, is in the top 5 teams in Europe? For our club, for our Vojvodina, this match is a reward for all the effort and results in European competitions in previous years. Of course we don't go out with a white flag, especially not at home.
Vojvodina is a strong team that makes things difficult for every opponent with their flexible defence. We have all 15 players from our game against the Rhein-Neckar Löwen on board, but we hope to be able to give one or two of them a bit of a break. Another win would be another big step on the way to the first place and the associated direct entry into the quarter-finals. Given our ambitions, we obviously want to take the two points with us.
Sporting are playing a nearly perfect season so far with a lot of very talented young players who already show their high potential on the big stages like the EHF European League or even the EHF EURO at the beginning of the year. As it is our home game, we want to win this big fight to make a big step towards the quarter-finals.
It will be a very difficult game, against one of the best teams in the world, a team with a great deal of individual quality. In my opinion, they have one of the best players in the world right now, Gidsel. But we are prepared and we have to look at our qualities as well. We also have a great defence, capable of stopping the best in the world.
I think this game will be really tough and we will have to give our best on the court, in order to take the two points. This game will be like a final for us, we need to be full-focus all 60 minutes to win. Constanta is a really good team, we have met them twice already this season, but no game is like the other. I hope a lot of fans will come and support us.
Against Dinamo it's a long time rivalry, Constanța have played against them in the European Cup 17 years ago and as far as I remember we qualified further. The history is in our favor and it will be a tough match against a galactic team that will have the support of their own fans. We're ready to give our best, we want only wins out of these two encounters with Dinamo!
