Hungary for EHF Women's Cup Winners' Cup Final place

HUN FTC-Rail Cargo Hungaria coach Gábor Elek talks to eurohandball.com ahead of his sides' EHF Women's Cup Winners' Cup semi-final, second leg match away at Dinamo Volgograd.

eurohandball.com: How do you recall the first match against Volgograd?

Gábor Elek: We started with a stable defence and our goalkeeper was performing well, so we scored many times through fast breaks in the first half. Our defence in the first 30 minutes was on a quite high level, so it was a nearly perfect performance.

Besides this we also reached a very high shooting percentage that was very important. The Russians had to replace their excellent goalkeeper Sedoykina in the 15th minute, and that had an effect too

eurohandball.com: What happened with your performance in the second half?

Gábor Elek: Our field players were too tired to concentrate, so the end of the attacks failed. They lost many balls though we knew that the Russians are excellent fast breakers, so they could come back in the match. After this period we played a bit more precisely in the last minutes so we could raise our advantage again. I think really and truly the return match will be a huge task.

eurohandball.com: Many of the fans think that Zsuzsanna Tomori showed a world-class performance. What do you think?

Gábor Elek: She had a determining role in our victory. Above all she is sensational in her thoughts, in her head. She has been playing handball on a very high level for a long time. Yes, I guess she showed world-class performance in the first match. I have to say she reached an excellent level for this moment.

eurohandball.com: Can your girls step on to the court and perform straight from the start?

Gábor Elek: We never had problems like this, now I also see that our team is terribly concentrated. Although I am not absolutely happy because Szandra Zácsik has suffered a smaller knee injury on Tuesday, so she could not finish the training on Wednesday. It is not good news.