Budapest, 25 January – Quotes from Denmark centre back Rasmus Lauge (DEN) and left back Mikkel Hansen (DEN), and France centre back Aymeric Minne (FRA) at media calls on Tuesday.
Rasmus Lauge (DEN) – centre back
On the upcoming match against France:
“Probably the hardest and toughest game is about to come for us in the main group. Against France, we will play for nothing, because we have already gone through. So we obviously will rest some players, but I don’t think there will be any problems, because all the guys in the team perform on high level, everyone is very talented.
“Our goal is to keep the fast rhythm we have been playing at during the whole tournament. Because as much as I see it, this is what usually made us better than our previous opponents.”
Mikkel Hansen (DEN) – left back
On how they are feeling:
“Of course, the better the play goes, the more confidence you gain. I think we all know in this team, that we all are good players and given this, we would be a tough team to beat. Although, this tournament has clearly shown that teams missing five, six, seven people due to Covid are still good enough to compete against the best nations.”
On the match against France:
“Nikola Karabatic is in good form, and he always has been. The French team works even better when he is on the court. There are some similarities between them and us, for example we both demand the best from each other and are striving to reach the semi-finals. They have a completely different winner mentality and end game, but both Denmark and France have been performing on a very high lever over the last 10 years. This is a team we always struggle with when we meet.”
Aymeric Minne (FRA) – centre back
On what could make the difference against Denmark:
“Maybe the motivation, because they have already qualified, we still haven’t. Therefore, we must play with a lot of energy and fierceness, also we have to prevent Mathias Gidsel to score many goals, because he is the best player, so probably this would be the key for tomorrow.”
On whether Denmark might rest players such as Mathias Gidsel:
“I don’t know, but we are preparing against him. Many of Denmark’s best players could rest against the Netherlands, because they had a huge advantage by the second half of the game, so we are expecting that many of the best ones will step on court tomorrow.”
On the atmosphere in the team:
“We play for our lives tomorrow, so we are very concentrated and focused. In case we lose, we have to say goodbye to the tournament, so we will give maximum effort and enthusiasm to beat Denmark.”
