Kiel – MHB. Samir Bellahcene: “I just had my daughter this week, qualifying for Cologne tonight.. It’s the best week of my life”

La joie de Bellahcene après la superbe victoire des siens. MAXPPP

Les joueurs de Kiel étaient forcément aux anges après leur incroyable victoire contre le MHB (31-21), jeudi 2 mai en quart de finale retour de la Ligue des champions, et tout particulièrement l’ancien Montpelliérain, Samir Bellahcene.

Samir Bellahcene, goalkeeper of THW Kiel: "It’s a miracle, it’s the mark of great teams. This evening, I realize what it's like to play in a great team, I'm going to give myself even more to stay with them for the long term. I play with legends and machines… What we did this evening was crazy, a miracle. I just had my daughter this week, qualifying for Cologne tonight.. It’s the best week of my life.

We had nothing left to lose. Honestly, I have never experienced such a hard week in training. And again I was lucky. to miss the last two training sessions. Since we came back from Montpellier, there hasn't been any talk of tactics. Filip Jicha put us on the pitch, we got on each other's throats, no whistle blew nothing… We only talked about tactics yesterday. We tried handball in the first leg and it didn’t work, so we wanted to play with something else.

Also read: VIDEO. Kiel – MHB: "It's too horrible to believe", "we missed out on an incredible opportunity"… post-match reactions

We knew that, every six minutes, we would be one more goal away… The goal was not to give them an 8-0 from the start of the match, we knew that it was not possible at this level, especially when we saw the game proposed by Montpellier in the first leg. We said to ourselves that we had to stay the course, that we were going to concede more goals but that we had to be good and keep a cool head and that's what happened. ;rsquo;passed.

Tomas (Mrkva) was monstrous, he closed the shop in the last ten minutes. This is the mark of great players, I am proud to share goals with him. He gave me a great lesson, I really learned from him and I hope it will help me for Cologne."

"It’was a magical night"

Filip Jicha, coach of THW Kiel : "I wanted to first thank Patrice for your words of congratulations. I know how hard it must be. I feel sorry for him because he is an idol as a coach, for everyone as well as for me. I want to congratulate him on his career and I am impressed by his work.

Also read: VIDEO. Kiel – MHB: the slap box released by the "Kielers", a big breakdown at the end of the match… how Montpellier ended up giving in ?

We put our hearts into it and everything we could today. We showed the spectators that we can be a team that fights until the end. I am very happy and proud of my guys, the way they performed tonight and their behavior in training during a very difficult week. Hard work pays off and I am very proud of it. We had this feeling that we could do it from the start of the match. It was fire from the start."

Eric Johansson, left back of THW Kiel: "Thank you to Montpellier for these two matches. We knew it was going to be very hard with nine goals. But we also knew that it was going to be possible here. We showed emotion, energy, it was a magical night."