Champions League Final Six 2017, Budapest (HUN)

Flash Quotes, Day 2

Semi-Final 1
Jug Croatia Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) v Pro Recco (ITA) 10-9

Vjekoslav Kobescak, head coach, Jug:
“I should say, this was another amazing match. This team really knows how to prepare for this kind of matches, they play with spirit. I think, this our driving force, our fantastic spirit. This made the difference today once more. It’s a big achievement to beat Olympiacos and Recco in any order on consecutive days, just as we did last year. Now we are ready to repeat last year’s win. I do think we are capable of making it.”

Vladimir Vujasinovic, head coach, Recco:
“I think there was too much pressure on our players. We met a great team, led by a great coach and couldn’t do our best. We have to analyse what happened to us in this match as we made too many mistakes. We focused on the championship a week ago, we have three players who only take part in the Champions League matches, perhaps they would have needed more time to adjust to the heat of the matches.”

Semi-Final 2
ZF Eger (HUN) v Szolnoki Dozsa-Kozgep (HUN) 5-7

Norbert Dabrowski, head coach, Eger:
“It was all about man-up and man-down, as usual at this stage of the big tournaments. In fact, we wanted to play a game like this, stop Szolnok’s rush which we did well. I’m satisfied with our defending, yesterday we got 4 goals, today we got 7, though twice we were unlucky – though I usually refrain from using this word – as our excluded player already returned but still they could score from those situations. Maybe, that made the difference.”

Zoltan Kosz, assistant coach, Szolnok:
“We wrote a couple of screenplays for this match and this low-scoring version was amongst them. We started slowly, the signs showed that we were out of match-playing for a while, on the other hand Eger had a great game yesterday, had a better pace at the beginning. Thanks to our quality players we could overcome these difficulties. Defence was the key of our victory, Viktor Nagy did a great job in the goal once again. Of course, we can play much better than this and I’m sure we have to improve a lot for tomorrow if we want to reach our dreams.”

For places 5-6th
Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) v AN Brescia (ITA) 5-8

Alessandro Bovo, head coach, Brescia:
“I’m happy with the result and the team’s performance. To be honest, it doesn’t matter if you finish 5th or 6th in this tournament but we played with one of the best teams of the world and we wanted to play well in the last match of the season. We achieved that today.

Theodoros Vlachos, head coach, Olympiacos:
“We came here to have a better result, a much better result but we finished last in this tournament. Still, we were here, qualified to the Final Six, had a good season though our finish wasn’t that great. Today I could hardly recognise my players, they showed a different face, played without emotion and real dedication. It’s somewhat understandable as they came here for the trophy. But there is always a new start and we will do everything to get a much better result next season.”

For free live streaming of all matches, play-by-play action and detailed stats, visit the LEN website (www.len.eu).

26 May 2017

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