Flash Quotes
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FLASH QUOTES Champions League – Rounds 8-10, Day 2 Group A, Round 9 CC Ortigia (ITA) v Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) 9-11 Stefano Piccardo, coach, Ortigia “We played well today, especially in defence. We tried to use the factor that their captain was missing and I think we did a very good job focusing on their right side. The offence was not bad either. We had a bad period in mid-March but we are coming back from it. Yes, it is difficult to play this level of matches in less than 24hrs but we are growing on every level including the ability of being able to deal with these kind of situations.” Stefano Tempesti, galkeeper, Ortigia “It was an excellent match. We are growing as a team, building our team's character and identity in this high level matches. We must keep our heads high. I am sorry, however. We were hoping to gain at least one point today, maybe even three. It would have been important to the team's moral. Still, we are playing well and we just need to step up a bit.” Vjekoslav Kobescak, coach, Jug “It was a difficult match. Ortigia was playing very well, at the maximum of their possibilities like in all their matches. They are a tough opponent for everyone, a mix of some older, more experienced players and young talents with an excellent coach. We are satisfied that we have secured the second place of our group, now even mathematically.” Luka Loncar, captain, Jug “It was a tough game. We were aware it would be so. They have an excellent goalkeeper and always play above their 100 percent. Towards the end we did slow down a bit and closed the match peacefully. We knew we were the favourites. Our goal is accomplished, we are now second in our group. Before the end of the group stage we want to show a different face tomorrow in the match against Recco compared to what we had presented in our last match at the Bubble 2 tournament (when lost 18-3).” CN Marseille (FRA) v Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) 8-5 Milos Scepanovic, coach, Marseille “I am so, so proud! This is a huge success and a result of the path we have taken with a lot of hard work along the way. We still have space for improvements. It will be difficult to prepare tomorrow’s match against Olympiacos especially for the young players after today. We are looking forward to a nice finish of this unusual season. I hope we will continue playing well.” FLASH QUOTES Andrija Prlainovic, player, Marseille “I am very satisfied. Today is the 100th birthday of our club CN Marseille. An important anniversary and another milestone in its history – we have qualified for the Champions League Final 8! We have showed a lot here. I'm just hoping we will stay healthy and keep the momentum going. We will try to win against Olympiacos tomorrow. In between the domestic league’s semi- final and final we won' t have much time to prepare for Belgrade. I hope we can leave an important mark there too.” Petar Kovacevic, coach, Spandau “Today's match brought a lot of swimming and few goals. We are just not ready for that at the moment with a limited roster. Somewhere in the third quarter we simply lost control of the match. I think more than once we didn’t even try to shoot in a man-up. We fell behind by two, three goals and by that time we had no strength left to come back. It is still good that we have managed to come here and play top-level matches.” Marino Cagalj, player, Spandau “We held on well for two and a half quarters. They have an excellent team and are known for their rhythm, which is one of their main characteristics. We, on the other hand, are having problems with our own as a result of not being able to train and play matches. Still, we did give our best today. It would be nice to conclude this year's Champions League with a win against Ortigia tomorrow.” Pro Recco (ITA) v Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) 13-6 Gabriel Hernandez, coach, Recco “The last time we played against them we didn't go into the match concentrated so that was my first goal for today's match. We learned the lesson and didn't make the same mistake today. Our defence was good as well as our counter-attacks. We had the right intensity and drive. Tomorrow we have to be careful against Jug as they will for sure be highly motivated after our last match.” Matteo Aicardi, player, Recco “It was a beautiful match. Their game is very static so we imposed our rhythm from the start which was difficult for them to follow. Tomorrow will be an interesting match against Jug after what had happened in the match we played the last time. We are satisfied with what we have done so far but it still doesn't have to mean anything in the end. We are taking one game at a time, hopefully all the way.” FLASH QUOTES Theodoros Vlachos, coach, Olympiacos “It was not easy for us to play today. We were behind, we could not follow their rhythm. They played aggressive defence and it was difficult for us to find solutions in the attack. After the second quarter it was difficult for us to follow them or try and come back.. This year they are favourites for the title, they are very strong and they demonstrated that. Tomorrow we want to enjoy the game, play free and see what happens.” Bruce Maxwell Irving, player, Olympiacos “It didn't matter today as we have already clinched a spot at the Final 8. We have to use these rare opportunities to play such strong matches this year as a preparation for Belgrade. We must focus on our game. They are fast, they push for many counter-attacks. We tried to limit the number of their goals. Tomorrow against Marseille we want to start better than we did the last time and also close the preliminary rounds with a win.” Group B, Round 8 FTC-Telekom (HUN) v Waspo 98 Hannover (GER) 13-9 Zsolt Varga, coach, Ferencvaros “It may sound unbelievable but it’s still true that it’s the end of April and this is the very first time we can play with a complete team. And because of this I also expected something similar as we have to find the rhythm again. Last time I talked about the many problems we had – now there is no problem, which is great, we just need the necessary fine-tuning to get more and more things right. I think today after the intense first quarter the game slowed down pretty much for the second and from that level it was hard to get back to our normal speed but for the fourth we did what we were expected to do in this match.” Denes Varga, captain, Ferencvaros “Though I didn’t like certain elements in the match but at the end of the day we won so we ticked one of the ‘compulsory’ victories here in this last round. As for my six goals, it could partly be thanked to our rivals as Hannover players left me enough room to play that well. By now I feel my physical shape is great, my pains are gone, I enjoyed the game today, though I’m aware that there will be matches where they try to leave me no room to play and there will be matches where I will have more but cannot perform as well as today but I work hard to minimise the number of these matches. As for the team, I think this is the biggest challenge for us to become a fine unit after everything we went through. We try to reach a level where we can have a great final in the domestic league and if we could retain our title, then we can go to the Final Eight and just enjoy the games there without any pressure.” FLASH QUOTES Karsten Seehofer, coach, Hannover “Congratulations to Ferencvaros, it was beyond question that they were the better team today. I think we are well-prepared for this tournament though our focus was primarily on the next match where we can get he necessary win to qualify for the Final Eight. That’s why we were a bit surprised that we stood 9-9 against Ferencvaros and I think we could not convert this surprise into an even better result. Still, it’s a good sign before tomorrow when we really want to do our best. Compared to the previous tournaments, we are in a much better shape now.” MoritZ Schenkel, goalie, Hannover “I think we improved our game a little bit and during three quarters we offered a good performance. But finally we fell again in well-known old situations and we did not finish our attacks correctly. Despite the result, we know that Ferencvaros played with a foot on the brake.” Jadran Herceg Novi (MNE) v Dinamo Tbilisi (GEO) 10-13 Petar Radanovic, coach, Jadran “We started the game well, had the lead, had chances but after a while we couldn’t score from even the best opportunities. Dinamo has a lot of experienced players who knew what to do in this kind of situations and punished our mistakes.” Vasilije Radovic, player, Jadran “Definitely, it was a tough match and we were prepared for that.