Reactions to the draw

The draw for the VELUX EHF Champions League Group Phase was made at the headquarters of adidas in Herzogenaurach, Germany, on Friday, 6th July 2012.

Here are some reactions to the draw:

Michael Wiederer, Secretary General of the European Handball Federation

These draws are always very exciting because you know most of the clubs you sometimes even remember combinations of matches you have seen before and there are some uncertainties, like the wild card winner coming into a group. This means that a group will be extremely strong.

Xavier O'Callaghan, FC Barcelona Intersport

This is handball, this is Champions League and you always have to give 100% if you want to succeed. It will be hard because we have teams like Zagreb and Schaffhausen in our group. And of course there is Berlin with former Barcelona players like Iker Romero and Igropolo so we will see. Like always, playing Champions League is a big challenge.

The aim of all the teams is to win the Final4 or at least to be there because it’s the highlight of the season. But this is the last step and the first step is now to win the Group Phase but anyway, we will always try to do our best.

Sabine Holdorf-Schust, THW Kiel

I cannot say exactly that I’m happy because we have a strong group again. We have had the strongest groups the last two years but we have nice opponents with Madrid, Veszprem, Sävehof and Celje so I’m sure that our spectators will be happy to see exciting matches.

We are the defending champion and our goal must be to reach the FINAL4 again but finally you need a little bit luck and you need players without injuries and since we have seven players competing at the Olympic Games, this makes it difficult for the coach to integrate the new players. 

But of course we want to reach the FINAL4 again.

Luis Miguel Lopez, BM Atletico Madrid

We are very happy with the results because the group B is very strong and we prefer to play against strong teams like Kiel. Veszprem is now like a Spanish team, because they have a Spanish coach and different Spanish players also.  It´s a very strong group but we are happy to play in this group.

This year was a little more difficult for the coach because we change for the first time 4 players but we are happy with the new players.

We are sure that Atletico Madrid will play an important role in the Champions league again and we hope to go back to Cologne and to be the first cub playing the Final4 for the fourth time.

Ante Ancic, HC Croatia Osiguranje Zagreb

I cannot say that I’m happy but I can say that I’m satisfied. When you see our group, it’s Barcelona, Füchse Berlin and Kadetten. And for us, the most important thing is that for all these cities we have a direct flight from Zagreb so it makes our group very cheap.

We decided to make a younger team this year and some of our players already left our team.  6 or 7 players left and we have 6 or 7 new players, all our young players. We hope that we can be competitive with our young players which can play fast and strong.

Final4 is in our next 4 year plan.

Laurent Munier, Chambery Savoie Handball

We are happy because I think we can fight for the third or second place. I think Copenhagen is the best team.  In this group Kielce may be the second but I think that we have a chance to beat Gorenje Velenje and St. Petersburg.

Maybe Montpellier can reach the Final4. For us, I think it´s too soon but I think that Montpellier has a chance to go there this year.