Opening press conference held on Thursday afternoon in Visnjik sports hall in Zadar officially marked the beginning of tenth SEHA Gazprom league Final 4 tournament. As it usually goes, first few minutes were reserved for Managing Director of SEHA Gazprom league Sinisa Ostoic: ‘I am really happy to welcome you all here in Zadar, Croatia. Tough day is behind us, one in which we were forced to make some hard but necessary decisions. What I can say is that we are all negative here for now – coaches, players and the entire organizing staff. I’m sure we’ll see good, quality handball which we will all enjoy in the next few days. Good luck to everyone and let the best team win!

After that it was time for the semi-final 1 in which Meshkov Brest will on Friday (18.00 CET) play PPD Zagreb.

Daniel Gordo, Meshkov Brest coach:

We’ve qualified for the tournament by winning against Eurofarm Pelister and we will here try to deliver our best against strong, quality PPD Zagreb team. They have a roster full of quality, experienced players with defense being the key to their game. I feel like all four teams have the same chances of going all the way here in Zadar.

Ivica Obrvan, PPD Zagreb coach:

We’ve brought in a lot of new players and we’re still in the middle of the preparation process for the upcoming challenges. Specific circumstances definitely, we’ve learned we will play on this tournament yesterday. Tomorrow we’ll face off against a top-class Meshkov Brest team which has also gone through a busy transfer window. Stas is the key to their game and our goal will be to deliver the best possible performance on both sides of the court and see what it eventually brings us.

Stas Skube, Meshkov Brest player:

This is one of the best tournament you can play in quality-wise with four great teams participating on it. I feel like we are favorites but as we all know, on tournaments like this anything can happen. Tough game is ahead of us, one that will in my opinion be decided in the final few minutes and in order to celebrate we’ll have to remain focused from the first until very last whistle.

David Mandic, PPD Zagreb player:

It definitely won’t be easy to prepare in the best possible way. It will be a tough match against one of the favorites to go all the way here in Zadar definitely. In our preparations we must focus on our offensive display as well as things that weren’t functioning the right way against Vardar. Our goal is obviously to play best we can and see where it brings us.

With Motor Zaporozhye's flight to Zadar being delayed, we've only seen Telekom Veszprem in the second part of the opening press conference before semi-final 2 (Friday, 20.30 CET).

Momir Ilic, Telekom Veszprem coach:

Quite difficult first few months on the coaching position are behind me. We are all professionals obviously trying to do our job the best we can. It is never easy to defend the title and in such it tournament there are never favorites but what is clear is that we'll do our best, try to deliver a solid performance and reach the final. Tough matchup against Motor is ahead of us and that is the only thing we're thinking about at the moment.

Mate Lekai, Telekom Veszprem player:

I always knew Momir will be a great coach if he ever decides to do that. As coach said, there are no favorites but we'll do our best to defend the title here in Zadar. Motor have good middle backs and left backs as well defense and that is something we'll have to prepare for.