Vestergaard: Still things to work on

Even though reigning Women’s Champions League winners Viborg HK are sure to not only qualify for the main round of the current Champions League, but also to win Group A, head coach Jakob Vestergaard is not completely content yet.

“We are close to a high international level, especially our defence. But we still make some individual mistakes from time to time. In the match against Byåsen, where we booked the ticket for the main round, I was not happy with our attacking game in the first half. I definitely was content after the break, where our timing in the established attacking play was quite good, and where we also had high quality in our fast-breaks,” Jakob Vestergaard told eurohandball.com.

However, the Viborg coach is aware of the fact that several players have been out with injuries for great parts of the season. Many of these players have returned and are still a little rusty on some aspects of the game.

“Handball is about perfect timing among other things, and of course there is a reason why we train as much as we do. If you do not have that perfect timing and mutual understanding, you can not win a handball match at top level. We still need to find another dimension to our attacking game, and we are well aware of that.”

Eager to finish well

Even though Viborg are sure to win their group, the last group match – the home game against Croatian champions Podravka Vegeta – will not be taken lightly. So far the Croatians have been the only team who has been able to defeat Viborg in the Champions League this season, as they won 31-27 at home on November 8^th. The Saturday match will therefore also be a revenge match.

“It will be a top game. Podravka played well when we visited them, while we made a poor performance. Their victory back then was absolutely fair. The result put a stain on our reputation, which we need to wash off. And it is obvious that we want to win in Viborg Stadionhal every time we play there,” Jakob Vestergaard declared.