Excitement grows as teams meet the press for the first time

The start of the first ever MVM EHF FINAL4 in Budapest is less than a few hours away as the participating teams show up for the media call at the Aquincum hotel in Budapest. The players and their respective coaches were in a  buoyant mood, meeting more than 40 media representatives promising a lot of excitement ahead, with the first match starting on Saturday 2 May in the sold-out Papp Laszlo Sportarena.

None of the teams wanted to predict the final result but everyone was looking forward to the event. Heidi Löke, the line player of Györ, has already won two CL titles but she wants to be the best this time again: "I know everybody is talking about Györ as a favourite, I do not care about it. Handball is fun, I love this sport, I am here to enjoy great matches and especially play with my lovely team. We are always hungry for more.“

Midtjylland are clearly the underdogs at this event but miracles and great surprises can happen at this stage. The players are not nervous about the weekend, they are rather excited. Line Jörgensen, the right back of Midtjylland, praised the atmosphere in the Hungarian capitol.

"This is the first final four for women, it is a huge step in the history of women's handball, a great feeling and I think it will be enormous. There will be a lot of spectators in Budapest and I am looking forward to it."

Suzana Lazovic, the line player of Buducnost, has highlighted their strength in defence and the importance of their coach’s qualities: “We have a great defence but the most important thing is that we have Dragan Adzic as a coach of the team. As long as we have him we have every possible advantage on our side. He had one week preparation in Bar and we played matches with Metalurg and Zagorje and they are great teams. These test matches surely helped us to prepare better for this event.”

For the first time there will be so much attention from media and supporters as never before and the teams count on their fans in Budapest, too. Tatiana Khmyrova, right back of Vardar, also relies on the supporters: “It’s great that there will be many people that will follow this event, even though it’s not the same like playing in Skopje but I really like the fact that many Macedonian people will come to support us and this support means a lot to us.”