“The pressure is on Ciudad Real“

Eight Champions League matches, eight victories: Ciudad Real are (together with THW Kiel) the only club in this year’s competition with a clean record.

Will VfL Gummersbach be able to end this series and – by the way – get in a better position for the semi-finals? On Wednesday evening they will know.

VfL coach Alfred Gislasson hopes that the Spanish champion underestimate the Germans after beating Flensburg twice in the group phase. In addition, Ciudad have problems with injured players such as Rodriguez or Sterbik.

“This match is a great challenge for our players,” says Gislasson. “Most of them had this very special match on their mind during our game against Velenje.”

Against the Slovenians VfL won after losing the first match of the group against Montpellier. But also Gummersbach cannot play with their best team. Vedran Zrnic is injured and it’s not clear whether centre back Oleg Kuleschov would be able to play.

Gislasson believes that the pressure is on the opponents:

“We can take it easy. I will not talk about winning this match. Everything has to run perfect for our team and Ciudad Real have to make more mistakes than usual.”

Gislasson calls Ciudad Real “a selection of absolute world class players,” and thinks that even the missing Sterbik and Rodriguez could be compensated.

Ciudad have shown their qualities in 2006 at the Champions Trophy in Kölnarena. Back then, the Spanish won and their player coach, Talant Dujshebaev was awarded the most valuable player. This was the last international title for Ciudad.

Also Ales Pajovic will be highly motivated as he played his first match for Kiel in Kölnarena and he scored ten times.

Maybe it’s easier to play for Gummersbach as they are not the favourites and they hope for more than 3,000 spectators in Kölnarena.