European champion ready for “Death Group”

Many people have characterised Group 3 of the Main Round as the group of death. This includes the German top teams SG Flensburg Handewitt, HSV Hamburg, former Champions League winner Portland San Antonio and Croatian champions HC Osiguranja Zagreb.

One of the Portland San Antonio key players is a Danish European champion. The performance of Lars Jørgensen in the Spanish defence will be essential for his team to win the group and go on to the semi-finals. Eurohandball.com talks to the Euro winner and defence specialist.

Eurohandball.com: What do you think about the group?

Lars Jørgensen: The break with Christmas and the European Championship meant that the injured players are fit again, although it is almost a tradition to have some injuries in our team. Right now we look pretty good and actually I believe it is an advantage that the group seems to be so close. This will probably mean that all teams can beat the other, so if we win our home matches and clinch an away victory, this may be enough to proceed to the semis.

Eurohandball.com: And what about the teams of the group?

Lars Jørgensen: Oh, they are good, of course! I expect Flensburg and Hamburg to play much the same style as Kiel that we met last season without much success. They play at a very high speed which makes it difficult for us to make substitutions from defence to attack, though they are very important for us.

I have no doubt, however, that these matches are going to be extremely equal and close, and hopefully we will get the upper hand this time and go on.

Eurohandball.com: You will meet many other Danes against Flensburg, including three of your fellow European champions, Lars Christiansen, Kasper Nielsen and Michael Knudsen. Does that make it special for you?

Lars Jørgensen: Not really. There are Danes everywhere nowadays. We also met GOG (Danish champions, ed.) in our preliminary group and that was not special either. However, I’m looking forward to playing against Flensburg, as I think I have the psychological upper hand against them after having defeated them twice with my former Spanish club, BM Altea...