Bitter Disappointment for Viborg  

It was a great disappointment for everyone in and around Viborg HK. The Champions League title holders were knocked out of this year’s tournament already in the quarterfinals. A 33-31 away defeat against Russian champions Lada Togliatti gave the team of coach Alexey Grumyakov semi-finals with a 65-63 aggregate win. Eurohandball.com talked to Viborg’s Swedish coach Tomas Ryde about the Champions League exit.

Eurohandball.com: Did you have enough time to leave the disappointment behind?

Tomas Ryde: No, not yet. We are all still extremely disappointed. We cancelled the Monday training and we start again on Tuesday to prepare for the Danish championship play-offs.

Eurohandball.com: What do you think the reason of your exit against Lada was?

Tomas Ryde: A lot of small things, actually. First of all, we did not get the first match under control until quite late in the game. If we would have won that game by seven goals instead making a draw after levelling a seven-goal Russian lead, things would have looked different, of course.

Furthermore, we missed some clear scoring opportunities in the second match, where I actually felt that we were in control. We missed when we were leading 25-23 with less than 15 minutes left and we saw Lada score six goals in a row. In that period we missed some big opportunities and made technical mistakes. We paid for this, but sometimes such things happen even with players at a top level. You cannot really blame them for that.

Eurohandball.com: How do you see your team’s performance in the Champions League in general?

Tomas Ryde: I was not happy with our away match against Larvik (Viborg lost 31-19, ed.) and with the matches against Lada either. But then again, Lada are an extremely good team. They play a very attractive way of handball, and I believe they can get far.

Eurohandball.com: In spite being out of the Champions League at this relatively early stage, your position on the Danish league still gives you a good chance to qualify for next year again. You will be reinforced by starts such as Bojana Popovic or the Lunde twins, Katrine and Kristine?

Tomas Ryde: Yes, that is correct. We finished second in the first phase of the championship and if we can maintain at least that position in the play-offs we will play qualification matches for next year’s Champions League. Hopefully, we will be back next year, having learnt from the mistakes we made this year.