Magdeburg drop their first point, Sporting stun Aalborg in MOTW
Four teams might already have secured their quarter-finals berths before the start of round 12, but this evening of Machineseeker EHF Champions League still had plenty to offer, as many tickets were still at stake.
In group A, leaders Füchse Berlin suffered their first home loss of the season against Kielce, while Sporting enjoyed the comeback of the evening to take the upper hand on Aalborg after trailing for 50 minutes.
In group B, Magdeburg remain leaders after saving a point in Plock, while Barça close in, thanks to their large win against Zagreb. Paris have now secured their play-offs spot, thanks to their narrow home win against Szeged.
We are very disappointed. We really wanted to win this game, but our performance wasn't good enough today. Our mentality was right, but such an experienced team as Kielce punishes our mistakes ice-cold. We win and lose together as a team.
We feel really great. As expected it was a really tough match against one oft he best teams in the world. So we were fighting till the end and finally won. The defense against Gidsel was the key.
An amazing game from the whole team and an amazing atmosphere. It was a tough match. We needed to prove that we are a good team and we did an amazing job after the break. We were playing against one of the best teams in the world, so we are really happy about this win.
Tough game, tough atmosphere. We played really well in the first half but had more problems scoring in the second half. It’s always hard to win in Lisbon. This Champions League is very tough, there are many strong teams and we always try to do our best.
Congratulations to Magdeburg, because they showed great quality coming back from minus six. We can be satisfied with how we performed, especially in defence, but also in attack. However, we must bow our heads to the experience of our opponents, because Magdeburg once again showed that they are one of the best teams in the world. We have one point and now we are focusing on the important match against Kielce and trying to recover as best we can.
Congratulations to Wisla for a great match. Congratulations also to our team, because we showed character, especially since Wisla played very strongly in defence. We didn't give up, we even had our chances to win, but in the end we managed to draw, coming back from minus six and scoring a point. Now we have time to rest and prepare for the next matches.
I'm very pleased with the team's mindset tonight. We stayed united and stuck together throughout the game. We're happy to have secured the qualification. I was a bit disappointed with the brief lapse in concentration before the half-time, but we were able to regroup and refocus to make sure we got the job done.
I'm proud of the team today. We showed good team spirit in difficult moments, we delivered a good fight and had the opportunity to get a draw. The fact that we have the head to head advantage after losing by one goal here might make a big difference at the end of the this group phase.
I’m very happy with the win, and I think once again today we showed that every match matters to us. This is the path we have to keep going. We’re Barça: we always want to win, we’re always hungry.
In this season, we are not ready to play against teams like Barcelona or Magdeburg, there are some very good teams here, but I'm sure that Zagreb soon will be again in a position to play against the teams with high level quality.
Thursday's action
