21.03.2011, 11:37
Kovacsics: "Marching like the wind"

Györ’s Anikó Kovacsics wants to defeat Itxako and meet Larvik in the finals.

Kovacsics: "Marching like the wind"

After winning Main Round Group 2, the Hungarian champions Györi Audi ETO will meet the Spanish champions Itxako Reyna De Navarra in the semi-finals, with the first match taking place in Spain.

ehfCL.com spoke to Györ playmaker Anikó Kovacsics after their home defeat to Larvik, that still did not prevent group victory.

ehfCL.com: Are you happy with your team's performance of this EHF Women’s Champions League season so far?

Anikó Kovacsics: I believe that our performance has absolutely been positive. There is nothing else to say about it. Everybody can be satisfied with us, despitethe fact that our last group match against Larvik has not ended as we wanted it.

ehfCL.com: What went wrong in that match?

Kovacsics: We expected that they would improve their game play compared to Norway. Their defence worked much better, so they had a lot of fast breaks from the beginning to the end of the match. We could not keep their pace when running back, which was the main reason of our defeat.

The most hurtful is having lost in front of our fans. Nobody can be happy after a defeat like this, but don’t forget, if that is all there is – to statistically lose every eleventh EHF Champions League game – I think that is not so bad.

Even if we were not prepared for such a bad result, we still finished on the first place of the group, so we won't stop. We will move on, because now there are much more important matches in front of us.

ehfCL: How do you look forward to the semi-finals against Itxako Reyna De Navarra?

Kovacsics: We played against them last season. Since that they have reinforced and have become much stronger. They showed very good form in their EHF Champions League matches. But our main target is to win the final, so it doesn't really matter who we will face, we have to beat any of them.

I have watched some of the Spaniards’ matches, and I have seen they keep marching forward like the wind. However, as always many tiny things will decide who will go to the final. Good thing is that we will play the return match on home court. In my personal estimation Larvik will beat Buducnost in the other semi-final, but anything can happen in that fixture, too...

TEXT: Ildikó Balogh (handball.hu)