Cheers erupted at Copenhagen Airport on Thursday evening when Aalborg Handball, with the help of Croatian Zagreb, secured their place in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Here, the North Jutland team was gathered at a restaurant before the last part of the journey home from Wednesday’s Champions League match in North Macedonia, and the North Jutland team followed group competitor PSG’s cracker in Croatia.
Before the final round of the group stage, Aalborg is now certain to finish among the group’s two best teams.
– I have just finished cheering, says Stefan Madsen when he answers the phone a few minutes following securing the quarter-final ticket.
– We had 2.5 hours to burn off at Copenhagen Airport, so we followed the match on live stream, and there was great cheering when it was over. In every way, it’s just really nice that it’s settled now.
– Of course there was a tiny hope for help, but we didn’t count on anything, and we had expected that we would have to decide it ourselves in the last round, says Stefan Madsen.
Had Aalborg finished in third place in the group, the team should also have played in the round of 16, but the North Jutland skip that round.
The round of 16 finals are played one week apart on either side of the Easter holidays, but Aalborg misses them. Instead, the players get time for private chores.
– First of all, we are extremely proud that we have once once more played in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. It is not everyday food, and we are extremely proud.
– It also means that we get a period where we can breathe a little and hopefully recover well. The round of 16 finals are played around Easter, but instead we get the opportunity to see a bit of the family during a holiday.
– So it is in every possible way very, very positive that we are directly in the quarter-finals, says Stefan Madsen.
The last round of the Champions League group stage takes place on Wednesday. Aalborg can take first place in the group with a home win over Polish Kielce, if the top team Kiel also loses to Zagreb.
/ritzau/
2024-02-29 19:51:19
#Aalborg #cheered #airport #Easter #lunches #saved