Veszprém- Kiel in the CL semi-final

The 2016 CL Final4 draw was arranged today at 12AM in Cologne, in which the following semi-final pairings were born:

 

 

One player of each team was live on the event via Skype: Ivan Cupic (Kielce), Thierry Omeyer (PSG), Niclas Ekberg (Kiel) and Andreas Nilsson (Veszprém).

 

The last two player said the following things after the draw :

 

Andreas Nilsson: I’m expecting a very hard game. We have met in the semi-final last year and in the preliminary round this year. We have 1 defeat besides the 2 wins in the last one year against them.

 

Niclas Ekberg: We know well the Veszprém team and we will prepare well against them. It will be hard but anything can happen in handball.

We have also asked Coach Xavi Sabaté, Renato Sulic and Christian Ugalde about the semi-final:

 

Xavi Sabaté: This will be the seventh final four in the history of CL and THW Kiel will be there for the sixth time. This also proves how powerful and experienced their team is because getting into the Final4 is really hard. They had a lot of injured players in this season, however many of them recovered. Every team represents a very powerful game in Cologne. In the last two years we experienced how hard it is to play in the Final4. I think that there is no such thing as favorite team in the final four because all the teams are very powerful and as a result of this every match will be really hard and anything can happen.

 

Renato Sulic: I admit that I have counted on the fact that we have to fight against Kiel again and my supposition was right. I am sure that it will be hard; however it would be also hard against the other two teams either. In the Final4 it does not matter who are you playing against as every participant is almost as powerful as the others. The main goal is to win another two matches in the CL. It is that simple (laughing).

 

Christian Ugalde: Kiel will basically play at home in front of a lot of German fans. It is always hard against them in Cologne. It is true that they were on the fourth place in our group but this group was really strong. However they lost in Szeged, they could be able to get over their disadvantage at home. In the quarterfinals they could beat Barcelona, the last-year champions, which is a huge thing. I feel that Kiel is getting better and better. They have the chance to win the Bundesliga and the CL. Maybe a lot of people say that this is not the strongest Kiel but they are still on the top and also amongst the best four team in the CL. It is always hard to win against them. We want to get into the finals and I feel that this will be our moment and we will make everybody’s dream come true in Veszprém.