“Worst loss of my life”
cool. No Swede has played a Final 4 in handball more than Niklas Ekberg and Andreas Nilsson.
This year, they are in place for the seventh time.
– It’s time for Veszprem now, says Nelson of the Champions League curse for the Hungarian super club.
UEFA Champions League Final 4 in Cologne – It doesn’t get any bigger in club handball.
When the thirteenth edition was decided this weekend, the audience, 19250 at the Lanxess Arena, is finally back after two years of the pandemic.
– It would be a completely different sport with an audience, he says Niklas Akberg and kel.
He and second Swede this weekend, Andreas “Stycket” Nilsson at Veszprem, are now a veteran of Final 4. No one at the start of this year’s field has made more Final 4 than the blue and yellow duo.
Together with Barcelona’s Gonzalo Perez de Vargas, they qualified for the fourth final. Jonas Kalmann, who also played in the Champions League semi-finals four, has the most number of semi-finalists among all Swedes: eight.
“Worst loss of my life”
They both won the Final 4 once – Nelson in his first match for Hamburg 2013 and Eckberg in his last match for Kiel 2020.
The Champions League is the biggest. I fought for it for a long time and really wanted that title, says Ekberg of the victory two years ago.
For Nelson, the gold medal with Hamburg was of course the highlight of Final 4.
– Although I did not have such a big role, he says.
Since then, it’s been a series of disappointments for Nelson and Veszprem in the fourth final: two final and three semi-final losses despite being one of the favorites each time.
The heaviest loss was against Poland’s Kielce in 2016 when he scored 9 goals 14 minutes from the end and then lost on penalties.
It’s the worst loss of my life and it’s probably always in the back of my mind, says the Piece.
Nine semi-final rounds – zero gold
To that we can add another final and three more semi-final defeats in the Champions League before Nelson joined in 2014. So Vesperm was in nine semi-finals during the 2000s without being able to salvage the gold medal. Veszprem dominates at home in Hungary (although arch-rival Pick Szeged wins the league title from time to time, as is the case this spring) and the CL title is that club management loses several million each year and that crowd of fans demands you win.
Time for Veszprem now, says Nelson, although he thinks the team has a slightly different seat this year.
Our goal before the season was not to be here. The club didn’t put that pressure on us because we had key players with cruciate ligament injuries when we went into the season. So we went here now without that pressure and we have nothing to lose. Then of course you want to win the bullshit once you’re here.
He will face the aforementioned Vesprem Kelsey in the semi-finals on Saturday and Nelson believes Kelsey is the favourites.
We have received underdog status and would like to keep it.
Keil with serious injuries
In the second semi-final, Kiel scored strikes from the bottom against defending champion Barcelona after the Germans injured their key players Sander Sagosin and Hendrik Beckler. But Ekberg remains optimistic.
Injuries shouldn’t mean much in the fourth final. It has been shown before that whoever reaches the level wins the best, it’s that simple. We still have a lot of class on the team and we firmly believe in our philosophy. When we do that, we can beat everyone with any team, says Ystad’s goal machine.
Among the bookmakers, Barcelona is the favorite title before Kelsey.
— but it’s completely open, says Nelson.
It is absolutely impossible to say who will win. “We just know there will be two semi-finals that are very close,” says Ekberg.
By the way, on Friday, Hambus One in Flensburg, knocked out in the quarter-finals by Barcelona, took a place in the All-Star Team of the tournament.