Admittedly: The main round of the EHF European League was no longer full of excitement. But the SG Flensburg-Handewitt had set their sights a little higher. The sound bites.
Aleš Pajović, SG coach: "Of course I'm not satisfied. We lost heavily - that wasn't our plan. The first half was almost perfect, but we missed too many chances. The half-time score wasn't the end of the world. We had more problems in the second half. We didn't have enough patience and concentration. We went from mistake to mistake, which THW exploited well. We're not in good form. The team has to pull itself together. From now on, our full focus is on the next task on Saturday."
Filip Jicha, Coach THW Kiel: "We wanted to put on a better face in this game than we did in Stuttgart last time out. We managed to do that. Rivalry is always high against Flensburg, but it was very fair and friendly from all the players. There's not much to say about the game, it was like a warm-up for the game on Saturday. It will be a completely different task with a completely different structure and completely different emotions. Hopefully we can take the necessary ease with us."
Johannes Golla, SG captain: "We didn't perform the way we wanted to in order to get the two points. We wanted to win them - regardless of the importance of these points. The many mistakes in the second half cannot be our claim. This performance should be a warning: We have to invest more. My compliments go to Thilo Knutzen and Catalin Haidu, who made the most of their minutes. We now have three days to do a lot of things better. We're looking forward to a hot derby. The arena has more to offer - and we have more to offer."