20.01.2009, 01:11
Draw reactions

Read the first comments coming from the Main Round teams immediately after the group draw.

Draw reactions

Viborg, Hypo, Podravka, Ikast in Group 1; Győr, Valcea, Buducnost, Krim in Group 2: the two Main Round groups of the Women’s CL promise tough matches and a lot of excitement.

The first reactions of the club managers/coaches:

Group 1

Kenneth Jensen (coach, Ikast): “Valcea would not have been an easy opponent either. There would have been one good reason to avoid Viborg. When you play in the CL, it is always more interesting to meet teams you do not meet every day.

“We are going to see a lot of Viborg this season. In a couple of weeks we are going to meet them for the second time in the Danish league and then twice in the Champions League. Later we might meet in the Danish play-offs…

“We know Viborg well and we also know a lot about Hypo. Their goalkeeper, Sabine Englert, is going to play for us next season.

“I know a lot of the Podravka players and I’m impressed that they could knock such a strong team as Larvik out.

“We know that we are in for a big task, but we will just take it comes.”

Gunnar Prokop (manager, Hypo Nö): “This was the wish of our coach András Németh. He really asked for this group. Personally, I learnt not to have any kind of emotions about draws, because that’s something you cannot influence. Anyway, the objective is to qualify for the semi-finals, there can be no question about it.”

Marijan Domovic (manager, Podravka Vegeta): “Though I wanted to avoid Viborg, these eight teams are all very strong. We have reached our target, which was the main round, so from now on every game will be a new experience for our team. We have respect for all the others, but we also want to reach the semi-final. So far everything went well and we made eight points from a very strong Group C.”

Zdravko Zovko (coach, Podravka Vegeta): “We simply don't have luck with the draws. We were afraid of the CL qualifications when we played in Spain, but we went on. Then we played in the ‘group of death’ against Oltchim, Larvik and Lada. We took eight points, more then ever before.

“This is now a really tough group, I could not think of a worse scenario. But we will not complain about bad luck. We proved already that we can make great results and we plan to continue with that.”

Group 2

Nicolae Luca (manager, Oltchim Valcea): “It wasn’t my wish to play against Győr, I would have preferred Viborg… Anyway, the fans will be happy with this, because we all remember that we played good games against Győr last season. The group will be hard, no doubt. Buducnost also made fantastic results recently – beating FCK and Hypo –, so we must be careful. Krim also have a new and good team.”

Lajos Kiss (manager, Győri ETO): “We couldn’t have received particularly weak teams. We have good memories against Valcea from last season’s main round. The objective is to reach the first two places, but all four teams have equal chances.”

Deja Ivanovic (manager, Krim Ljubljana): “Only the best teams are left in the main round. I had the feeling that we would play against Győr because we have not met a Hungarian side in the last couple of years. We have a young team and we will do everything for a good result.”

TEXT: Peter Bruun, Ivan Ambros, Balázs Nemcsik