"You cannot play like that"

Already twice this season Oltchim Valcea have lost by seven goals away to Viborg HK in the Women’s EHF Champions League. In the Main Round the Romanian champions had to fly home with a 33-26 defeat in their cabin baggage, and in the first leg of the finals the result was 28-21 in favour of the ruling champions. Valcea’s 33 year old back court player Narcisa Lecusanu talked about the team’s perspectives.

eurohandball.com: How do see the first match?

Narcisa Lecusanu: We never managed to play our usual play. Usually we have a good team, but nobody could see that today, as we never found ourselves or picked up our typical way of playing.

eurohandball.com: You seemed to be in control during the first 15 minutes. Why were you not able to hold on?

Narcisa Lucusanu: We simply did not get out enough of our good start. Handball matches last 60 minutes, but apparently we forgot that. We did not put in enough effort, and in particular we were not fast enough at getting back into our defence. This meant that Viborg scored a lot of goals on fast breaks, and that made things very difficult for us. You cannot play like that against an opponent like Viborg.

eurohandball.com: Will you be able to turn the seven goals of difference in the return match?

Narcisa Lecusanu: I do not know, but at least we have one more match to play, and we have to get the best out of it. We still have a chance. It is small, but we have to give all we have got in that match. I don’t know if we can manage to catch up with so many goals, but at least I hope we can play a good game. Then we will simply have to see.

eurohandball.com: For the second leg final you will move from your usual home ground to Bucharest. What will that mean, do you think?

Narcisa Lecusanu: I am not sure, but I hope we will get the same support from the spectators, as we are used to from Valcea. Anyway, the least we can do is show a good performance. After all, this is the EHF Champions League final, and obviously we will give our best to make a superior attempt.