Zubai: “We Will Sweat Blood!”

Szabolcs Zubai is under no illusion about how hard it will be for Pick Szeged to reach the last 16 of the VELUX EHF Champions League.

ehfCL.com: Your VELUX EHF Men's Champions League campaign has started with two defeats. Were you prepared for that?

Szabolcs Zubai: We already knew after the draw for the competition was made that we are in the hardest possible group of them all. Of all the national champions from across Europe, only Barcelona and Ciudad Real are missing from our group. To tell you the truth I have been waiting to play in this group, because it is always a pleasure and a privilege to play against the best players from around the world.

Of course I don’t think anyone on the team was expecting to lose by 12 goals against Kiel and Kobenhavn, but we have to forget the past and look forward to our next game. We will host Reale Ademar Leon on Saturday, and realistically we have to beat them if we want to hold any hope of qualifying from the group and reaching the next stages of the VELUX EHF Men’s Champions League.

ehfCL.com: How would you describe Reale Ademar Leon?

Zubai: They are a really strong team. When they played Montpellier in their first match they only lost by four goals. They have a really excellent line player and some very experienced wing players, and their three players by the inner positions are also great.

We have already watched our game against Kobenhavn, but will analyse Leon on video on Thursday to look at how we can best approach the game. Realistically, I guess we only can beat them if our injured players are able to take to the court.

ehfCL.com: If you are victorious on Saturday, do you think that will be enough for you to qualify from the group into the next stage?

Zubai: We have to do everything we can to reach the last 16 until there is no mathematical chance of qualifying. We need to do whatever it takes to find a victory and take it from there. If we managed to win it would be fantastic, and give our self-confidence a real boost.

If we can beat Leon on Saturday we will still have many difficulties to tackle in the future – starting with next week at Beograd where we will sweat blood for sure. I guess that match will be the other most important one for us this autumn.

Match of the week

The duel of two big guns will be broadcast as a free-of-charge live web stream on ehfTV.com as our featured "Match of the Week", including English commentary of Tom O’Brannagain.

VELUX EHF Champions League, Group Phase, Round 3
Sat, 15 October 2011, 16:15 hrs (local time)
Pick Szeged (HUN) vs. Real Ademar Leon (ESP)

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