Ciudad prepared for mammoth task

Ciudad Real will start the second leg of the final with a significant advantage – that of the home court. Out of 42 Champions League games played in the Quijote Arena, the Spanish team lost only two and made one draw.

Such a record may sound frightening for the guests. Celje was one of the teams victorious on this court and the other was THW Kiel.

The only Kiel triumph in Ciudad Real was the memorable first leg of the 2007/08 Final, though it was not enough to claim the title.

This season top clubs such as Veszprém, Hamburg, Barcelona, Portland have lost here. Even Kiel were defeated in the main round by 35-33 at a very equal match.

Better defending

There will be several French players in both teams on Sunday. One of them is the defence specialist Didier Dinart who prepares for “a very intense and not at all easy” game.

Dinart – just as Omeyer or Martini – can still remember the CL title of Montpellier when they took the title after losing in Pamplona by 8 goals.

"I believe that the best would be to arrive to halftime with 3-4 goals of advantage. However, nothing is lost if we cannot make it because a lot of things can happen in barely 5 minutes.

“In Kiel we focused too much on the attack. This time we will have to keep the balance in defence as well. We will have to be prepared and keep the rhythm of the game".

Regarding his national team mate Karabatic he says: “He scored many goals from quick attacks. However, we are able to stop him with an organised defensive wall. We must avoid losing balls. All of our players need to perform on 100%."

"The fans will help us. It feels good to play in this arena and the euforia will give us a push,” Dinart said.

Suceessful farewell?

The Icelandic right back of Ciudad Real scored the last goal of the game in Germany. Olafur Stafansson will need to score many more in order to win the game with a sufficient number of goals and lift the trophy. He knows this:

“We will give our heart to take revenge for that defeat. We made mistakes and did not perform at our best. This time if we fix these problems, we can win," Stefansson said.

The player called "Ole" also counts on the support of the fans who really liked him. At the end of the season Stefansson will leave Ciudad Real and he summarises the time spent in Spain as follows:

"Titles, people, food and a lot of experience… I take many things with me, but only good memories. The first two years were more difficult, the last four were a dream come true. If we can win the trophy, it will be just perfect."