Szeged coach Michael Apelgren: “If Magdeburg plays like they did today, they are better than us. We have to accept that. We want to reach this level, but we don’t have it yet. We have to be that honest.”
Bennet Wiegert: “There is no question that we are really proud to have won here today. As always, there was a very special atmosphere in this hall, in which it is difficult to survive. In addition, there was the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the club – that was a special evening for all of us. We’re just happy to have performed like this here. We were there from the start and in a good mood, we can pull away a bit. We have problems again at the beginning of the second half, but we don’t let it get us down and manage it well in the end. These are important points for us in the preliminary round and so we can now go home with a good feeling.”
Christian O’Sullivan: “It’s a really unpleasant arena where it’s hard to win. They have a really good team. Although they have to do without some performance carriers due to injury, they made it difficult for us. We played a very good first half, and then stumbled a bit. After that, however, everything started to come together again: good defence, saves … and we’ll take the win. These are two hard-fought, very important points.”
Match report: here.
Highlights of the game: here
Referees: Igor and Alexei Covalciuc (MDA)
Attendance: 6186
Score: 2-2 (5th), 6-6 (10th), 9-8 (15th), 11-10 (20th), 15-13 (25th), 18-15 (30th) – 18-16 (35th), 19-17 (40th), 24-22 (45th), 28-24 (50th), 31-27 (55th), 34-30 (60th)
OTB Bank – Pick Szeged: Thulin (5 saves), Mikler (1 save); Bodó 4, Fazekas, Jelinic, Gottfridsson 1, Sostaric 8/5, Frimmel 2, Banhidi 4, Kalarash, Toto 3, Kukic 2, Garciandia 3, Mackovsek 3, Jaró, Szylágyi
SC Magdeburg: Hernandez (10 saves), Mandic (2 saves); Claar 6, Zechel 3, Kristjansson 5, Pettersson 3, Magnusson 5/5, Hornke, Jonsson, Weber, Lagergren 1, Mertens, Saugstrup, O’Sullivan, Barthold 4, Bergendahl
