Exclusively Stefan Kretzschmar before EHF F4: Kiel and Barca favorites, but Kielce and HSV can reach final

Three days left until the biggest event in our sport – VELUX EHF F4 in Cologne! “Lanxess Arena” will host 20.000 handball fans who will enjoy unforgetable time  and matches of the four biggest European teams for the fourth consecutive year. One of the handball legend, who will be there is the best ever EHF Champions League left wing Stefan Kretzschmar who speaks about F4 exclusively for Handball-Planet.com:

– Of course, I am not said to see two German teams in the semi-final. It would be sad if just German teams could reach the final. Handball needs a strong European competition level and some other strong leagues. In my opinion, Kiel is the best team with the best individuals, but HSV is in good shape and they can beat “Zebras” in 60 minutes of elimination game. HSV has also a strong starting line-up – says handball guru, commentator of SPORT 1 and 2.Bundesliga team Leipzig board member

All teams wanted Kielce in the semi-final. At the end Barca was lucky. Do you share that opinion that Polish team is outsider or we can expect more from them in Cologne? How do you see clash between Kielce and Barca?

– It would be a big mistake if someone think that Kielce is the weakest team. They have a really good team and of course they have the ability to beat Barcelona. I like what Kielce build up in the last years. As I said, we need strong teams all over Europe! It will be a tough match up!

Which team is the biggest favourite to win the trophy?

– THW Kiel and Barca. They have a lot of world class players. Guys who leaving Kiel after this season want to say goodbye with one more trophy. They will be motivated as hell.

How do you see the whole event in “Lanxess Arena”? Everything looks so perfect for handball condition. What do you think, is it possible to make even bigger and more crowded event somewhere else in the near future?

– I love that event, really. I just hope that an event like that would be also possible outside of Germany, maybe Belgrade , Zagreb, in Hungary, wherever. We need to improve the other leagues too. We have a strong German Bundesliga, but just one or two strong teams in other countries. We have to change that and help that countries to bring handball on higher level. There are some ideas how to do that, but it’s all about the money unfortunately. I have a dream of a strong European handball-market with strong teams – concludes Kretzschmar for Handball-Planet.com.

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