Still open

The goalkeepers were the dominating in the first leg between Viborg HK and Győr. Katalin Palinger from the Hungarian champions and Norwegian international Katrine Lund Haraldsen from the Danish champions both performed a series of miracles in their goals and quite deservedly, they were both awarded with the best player titles after the match.

The 29-year old Haraldsen played her first CL Final ever. In spite of a fantastic performance with 18 saves, four of them on 7-meter shots, she could not find much consolation in her own fine effort when eurohandball.com spoke to her.

Eurohandball.com: You were awarded the best player title by the fans, but your team lost by two goals. How did you feel about it all?

Katrine Lune Haraldsen: Obviously, I was extremely disappointed and sad. I think it was terrible to lose a Champions League final the way did.

Eurohandball.com: You did your best in the goal. Your teammates did all they could in defence, but there were huge shortcomings in attack. Why did the game turn out this way?

Katrine Lunde Haraldsen: We could never get our attacking game work, and that led to too many poor shots. It is really difficult to say why it went that way. I was thinking a lot about the reasons of our problems in attack already, but maybe it is still too early to put them into words.

Eurohandball.com: Did it disturb playing away from home?

Katrine Lunde Haraldsen. No, on the contrary! I think we had a fantastic support and there was a great atmosphere all the way.

Eurohandball.com: What do you think about your team’s chances now?

Katrine Lunde Haraldsen: Two goals are not a lot. Of course, we will have to be ready from the start in Hungary. I believe everything is still open. We spend this week by training for the return match and I’m sure you will see us in a higher gear on Saturday.

Anyway, I’m ready to have a great match again and then I hope that I can contribute to our aggregate victory.