German-Spanish duels: reactions

The draw for the EHF Men’s Champions League was attended by representatives of the clubs taking part in the semi-finals. Eurohandball.com asked all four sides for a quick reaction after learning the opponents.

Ciudad Real vs HSV Hamburg

Miguel Amigo (Ciudad Real): All teams are difficult opponents in the semi-final. For sure, we did not want to play against FC Barcelona, because we will play many games against them in the Spanish league as well.

Chema will not return for the rest of the season, but Metlicic and Urios will recover by then. I give 50% chance for both teams. 

Cristian Fitzek (HSV Hamburg): The draw turned out to be okay for us. We will play the first game away, which is favourable, so we are satisfied.

Our problem is that our squad will not be complete for the final stage of the competition. We lost Velyky and Jansen is also injured. We will see what will happen.

THW Kiel (GER) vs FC Barcelona (ESP) 

Sabine Holdorf (THW Kiel): We wanted to play against Barcelona. The difficulty is that we will play the first match at home. In fact, it was always so. We played four times against them and we always played the first at home. It will be interesting that Barcelona have two players who used to play for us. Xepkin and Lozano are heroes in Kiel and they will play on home court. Anyway, we hope to reach the final.

Xavier O’Callaghan (FC Barcelona): It would have been impossible to find an easy opponent in the semi-final. At this stage every game is like a final. We are lucky that we will play the second game at home as it was always the case when we met Kiel. I remember that these were always tough matches and the games in Kiel are played in a fantastic atmosphere, probably the best you can experience.  

It will not be easy. We had a tough schedule including the European Championship and the players are tired now, but we will try to reach our top form for the upcoming phase.