After the game, the fans celebrated and sang. The 40:39 victory over Füchse Berlin was close, but also very important. The sound bites.
Aleš Pajović, SG Coach: "It was an incredible game. We scored 40 goals and got 39 goals. Plus one - that's such an important win. We played against the German champions. Berlin has some of the best players and a very good system. We had the advantage with our fans and our arena. We always found solutions in attack in the first half. It worked well with three right-handed players at the back. The defense wasn't aggressive enough, which Berlin played off with patience until they got the right chance. It was better in the second half. And we had two or three hundred percent saves from Benjamin Burić, which you need in a game like this. In the end, I would have preferred to win a little earlier, but we were also playing against a team with a lot of experience."
Nicolej Krickau, Foxes coach: "It was a game in which both defenses didn't have their best day. I have the feeling that the qualities of Simon Pytlick, but also of Marko Grgić and Lasse Møller, were too great for us. We didn't have the necessary cooperation between defense and goalkeeper. We never had enough control when SG played with almost four players at the back. And when we had control, the SG did it with patience. In the end, we were successful with our offensive defense because the SG had problems with the air. We lacked composure in our final attack."
Benjamin Burić, SG keeper: "It was very important to get the two points in this top game. The Foxes play unpleasantly and got a lot of free throws, which they exploited. We closed down the middle a bit more in the second half and were successful with this change. We had 6300 spectators behind us. We players need that to go all the way. Simon Pytlick was outstanding."
Simon Pytlick, SG backcourt ace and birthday boy: "I was a bit more nervous than usual because it was a top game. As soon as we entered the arena, we focused on the game, which the team did brilliantly. We really wanted to bounce back after the game in Lemgo. It's remarkable that Lasse Møller came back so well after two months out of competition. We should have done better in the last three minutes. We should take another close look at them."