“It was teamwork”

The coach of Ciudad Real won the Champions League title for the second time in his career. In an interview with Eurohandball.com, Talant Dujshebaev tells us what he feels after the sensational 31:25 victory in Kiel.

Eurohandball.com: Congratulations Mr. Dujshebaev. Last week your team lost at home by two goals, but now Ciudad Real have beaten Kiel in Sparkassen Arena in front of 11,000 spectators. What did you change during the week?

Dujshebaev: The home defeat was our biggest motivation before the second match. Before the first game we didn’t have the time to carry out real preparations as we had a league match against Barcelona few days earlier. Now we had a week to concentrate and prepare for this decisive match. This was a keys to success. We had a lot more power and passion respect to the first match.

Eurohandball.com: Did you expect to win so easily in Kiel?

Dujshebaev: We knew that we would play against the best team in the world and we had some hope to win. But with a lot of injuries I didn’t expect a six-goal victory.

Eurohandball.com: Your goalkeeper, Árpád Sterbik, played an outstanding game with 24 saves. Do you think he was the match winner for Ciudad?

Dujshebaev: He played well in the first match too, but he had to admit that Kiel’s Omeyer played even better. And this made him even stronger. It was his motivation to be better than Omeyer in the second match. And Árpád Sterbik was one of most important players today. However, I never talk about match winners.

Eurohandball.com: Why?

Dujshebaev: Because all players have their importance in the club. There are no stars, we have a team. If you have seen the match today you could also say, that Olafur Stefansson and Jonas Kallman won the match with 23 goals. But then you have to look at the defence: Viran Morros and Didier Dinart were as important in defence as Stefansson and Kalman in attack. So I never single out players, all are important.

Eurohandball.com: At the start of the match you seemed to be very excited. What's happened?

Dujshebaev: It was one of the most important matches for me and for the club ever, so it’s normal that you act like this. But I never argued with my players, I always tried to motivate them. At the end I was okay.