Győr Coach: “Larvik Are Open Book”

Győri Audi ETO KC play their first leg in the Champions League quarterfinal on home ground on Saturday. The Hungarian team seemed to be on the right track recently: they do not have injured players, they have shown a convincing performance in the Hungarian league and the squad are quite motivated for the battle with Larvik of Norway – says Kálmán Róth, the coach of the team in an interview for eurohandball.com.

Eurohandball.com: How are your players doing before the CL game this weekend?

Kálmán Róth: Lazer has an acute knee problem, so she could not play enough recently as we have been training quite hard and it did not do good to her leg. All other players are healthy, if you disregard the minor injuries. We played against Vác in the Hungarian championship in our latest game and we showed a convincing form. I was impressed by the homogeneous, unified game. If none of my players get injured in the Hungarian Cup match against Vasas during the week, then I will really have a hard time selecting the 14 handballers to nominate for our CL game.

Eurohandball.com: Could you analyse Larvik’s game on video? Can they still cause any surprise?

Róth: The Norwegian club is an open book for us as we have lots of video footage, perhaps even more than you can actually analyse. I’m looking at the games where they played with teams that have a similar style to ours. The key matches for our preparation are our two CWC semi-finals from last year. There have been no significant changes in Larvik’s squad since then, their basic line-up is the same, their coach is the same, so their tactics remained the same, too. On the other hand, they are in much better form this year; they have shown one of the most impressing performances in the Champions League so far. Therefore it is very important to analyse their group matches as well, including their convincing, 10-goal triumph over CL winner Viborg.

Eurohandball.com: How do you see your prospects for the quarterfinals?

Róth: Right now we definitely have a 50 percent chance, and we’ll see how the odds change after the first leg. We are going to play in Győr, so the familiar environment and our crowd will be an advantage: our players are quite motivated, but the fans will boost their morale even more.