Club manager, Gunnar Prokop, talks to Eurohandball.com just before the women's derby of the week, Hypo vs Viborg.
We have to win every home game
When Hypo will meet Viborg on Sunday, it will be a clash of two European handball giants. But even between the two clubs there are massive differences: the Austrian side employs three people, while the office of the Danish club has a staff of 18. Viborg has 330 children learning handball in school, while Hypo only has 18 players like them.
This all will not matter on Sunday in Südstadt - according to Hypo manager, Gunnar Prokop.
Eurohandball.com: How important is that game between these two top European sides?
Prokop: It is a massive game in a very interesting situation. You have to win every home game if you want to progress to the semi-finals. Therefore my request to my team is: score as many goals as possible, even the goal-difference may count at the end of the day.
Eurohandball.com: Hypo will face a real dream team on Sunday. How can you stop Viborg?
Prokop: They have world-class players for every position; especially with Jurack and Popovic they have the two best backcourt players of Europe. We have to stop these two. But on the other hand, we have Kim and Oh in defence and Viborg don’t have such high quality players there. It will be a very tense and heated game...
Eurohandball.com: You started the Main Round perfectly. Are you satisfied with the 31:21 away win in Slagelse?
Prokop: The result was great, but the performance was not. My fear is that all the other teams might beat Slagelse and then our win will not be so valuable any more. Then the direct results in the games against Viborg and Zvenigorod may count. We simply have to win every home game to have a decent chance of getting to the semi-finals.
TEXT:
Eurohandball.com