Fyllingen's great adventure

Fyllingen Handball will appear in the group stage of the EHF Champions League this season for the first time. After winning the qualification group at home against A1 Bregenz and Partizan Beograd, the Norwegian champions are ready for Group C. They will meet Ciudad Real, HSV Hamburg, Zagreb, FCK Håndbold and Allingsås.

Fyllingen´s Swedish head coach, Anders Fältnäs, talks about it as an adventure.

Eurohandball.com: Did you have doubts about making it to the CL?

Anders Fältnäs: In fact we were lucky against Partizan in our qualification group. We were three goals down, but we managed to close the gap at the end. Against Bregenz we were much better and we really did not have any trouble that game.

Eurohandball.com: What does it mean for your club to reach the CL for the first time?

Anders Fältnäs: It means a lot to the city Bergen as well as to Fyllingen as a club. It’s tremendous boost for us, but it also means a lot for Norwegian handball and for its future ranking. This year we were ranked number three among the teams who did not qualify for the group stage directly. If we can get just a few points in our group we may improve the Norwegians’ ranking so that we directly qualify for the group stage.

Eurohandball.com: Are you ready for it?

Anders Fältnäs: We had almost six months to prepare for this eventuality, so I hope we are. Anyway, we are really looking forward to bringing world class handballers such as Ivano Balic, Guillaume Gilles, Jonas Källmann and others to our spectators.

Eurohandball.com: You will meet your team’s former star, Thomas Drange, again. He is playing for FCK…

Anders Fältnäs: Yes, and that will be more special for him than for us. I do not think my players will be thinking much about meeting a former mate.

Eurohandball.com: What about the chances?

Anders Fältnäs: We have to be realistic and accept the fact that we are ranked number six in our group and we have to avoid finishing last. This would be a success.