Table tennis premier league

“We sold ourselves extremely expensively”

(Bild: Frane Kojic)

Wr. Neustadt was eliminated early from the Champions League Final 4 in Saarbrücken, but still took a lot of positives with them. Boss Franz Gernjak reviewed the club's highlight.

"We'll get this thing next year," said Neustadt's table tennis boss Franz Gernjak, looking ahead again after the premature exit from the Champions League Final 4 in Saarbrücken.
"It was completely quiet then"
Frane Kojic & C. lost 3:1 to the 33-time German champions Düsseldorf in the semi-final on Easter Sunday - as was to be expected. "But we sold ourselves extremely expensively." And even briefly caught a whiff of fire. Because Ivor Bann made it 1:1 in the meantime with a clear 3:0 against the Swede Kälbar. "After that, Kahanin suddenly took a 6:1 lead against Dan Qiu, the reigning European champion, and it was completely quiet in the hall." Almost!

Neustadt played in front of 2500 fans in Saarbrücken(Bild: Zvg)

Because the 25 Neustadt fans who had traveled with them made a lot of noise. Gernjak grins: "We were louder than the other 2,500 spectators. Even ARD showed us in their report." Which didn't help much in the end. Gernjak: "Nevertheless, I couldn't be prouder. The boys put up a brave fight and gave their all." Incidentally, the title went to hosts Saarbrücken. FC narrowly defeated Düsseldorf 3:2 in the German final.