Aalborg Director Believes in a Successful Season

The summer has been pretty turbulent for Danish Champions League team, Aalborg DH. Several key players left the club after the season and a merger with the city’s largest sports club, AaB, was planned but called off.

Nevertheless, Aalborg DH, CL semi-finalist two years ago and quarterfinalist this season, will be a strong team. New players have joined to replace the leaving ones.

The most prominent new signings are pivot Karen Brødsgaard from the Danish national team, who comes from Ikast/Bording EH, and playmaker Rikke Nielsen, returning from German HC Leipzig.

Just as in the previous two years, Aalborg starts in the second qualification round of the Champions League. The qualification round will be carried out in a group phase this time.

Eurohandball.com talks to club director, Erik Just, about the team and the chances in the CL.

Eurohandball.com: Would you say, after signing Rikke Nielsen, that your squad is complete now, or we may expect more signings?

Erik Just: You should never say never in this business and I do not rule out the possibility of signing further players. However, I do think that our squad is more complete, stronger and more experienced than last season. They are the squad of the future with a good mix of experienced players and young talents. The young ones will get the necessary time to improve.

Eurohandball.com: What was the lesson you learnt last season? You had few players and it may have been a reason to stop at the CL quarterfinals?

Erik Just: You are absolutely right; we paid a price for not having large enough squad last season, and I think we will avoid similar situations in the future with the squad we have now.

Eurohandball.com: You will need many players next year as you may play even more matches in the Champions League on top of the Danish league games…

Erik Just: I do hope that we will qualify for the CL again, but first we have to play three tough matches in the qualification group on 28-30 September. We must win the group to qualify for the group stage at all.

Eurohandball.com: You are seeded in Pot 1 for the second qualification round. That must mean some advantage…

Erik Just: Of course it does, as we avoid strong teams such as Lada Togliatti. There are still very strong teams in Pot 2 such as Byåsen from Norway, Zaporozhye from the Ukraine, Mar Valencia (under the name of Astroc Sagunto last season, ed.) from Spain.

I’m pretty sure that the teams who get to host these groups will have a big advantage. At first, we were told by journalists that we would be offered to host our group, as we were seeded in Pot 1, but in the meantime we have understood that the hosts will be drawn, just as the groups. However, I still hope that we will host our group. Not only to have the home advantage, but I’m also sure that we could make a fine show in the Gigantium Hall with all the spectators the event attracts.