Christophersen: Defeats cause no panic

Three victories in four matches of the VELUX EHF Champions League Group Phase, the first team which took a point from THW Kiel on domestic ground since April 2011, currently third ranked in the Bundesliga – everything seems to run perfect for 2012 VELUX EHF FINAL4 participant Füchse Berlin.

But the past two games ended with defeats for the team of Sven-Sören Christophersen: First they were eliminated in the German Cup by N-Lübbecke, then they were beaten by SG Flensburg-Handewitt in the league duel of the VELUX EHF Champions League participants 29:18 – their first league defeat in this season.

But for German international Sven-Sören Christophersen, who was the top scorer of the national team in the Sunday´s match against Israel (7 goals), those results are no reason to panic by looking upon the upcoming tasks in the VELUX EHF Champions League, as the left back mentions in this interview with ehfCL.com.

ehfCL.com: Does it feel good to be at the national team this week for the EHF EURO 2014 qualification after those two defeats on club level?
Sven-Sören Christophersen: Maybe it is good to get your head free of some thoughts, but I honestly have to say that those defeats do not cause a crisis or whatever for Füchse. Those were our first defeats on domestic ground, so really nothing worse has happened except that we lost. We are absolutely on course in the VELUX EHF Champions League with three victories and in the Bundesliga we only lost one from ten matches.

ehfCL.com: You beat Schaffhausen, Szeged and Minsk, but lost clearly at Barcelona…
Sven-Sören Christophersen: Yes, the defeat at Barcelona was clearer than expected and it should not be an excuse that we had a tough league match two days before and Barcelona could rest. They even said to us that we were their first ever real challenge in this season. This is the difference of Asobal league and Bundesliga. The victory at Szeged were some bonus points, as we know the strengths of Pick, which they currently just proved by beating Veszprém in the league. So everything ran as expected for us.

ehfCL.com: So the second rank in your group is still the target you aim for?
Sven-Sören Christophersen: Exactly. And I believe that we have a good base to finish on this position, which usually means an easier opponent in the Last 16. But before thinking about the final ranking of course we have to proceed to the next stage. We have three tough and path-finding matches against Zagreb –home and away – and at Minsk ahead before the break – and I hope we still rank second after those duels. Though we know by our own experience that you can even qualify for the VELUX EHF FINAL4 when you finish fourth after the Group Phase like us in the previous season.