Barbara Arenhart: Small details can decide Match of the Week

It is a case of history repeating for Krim, as they also faced a Romanian club at this stage of the season last year. In 2023 CS Rapid Bucuresti won the double-header by a single goal. Now, Krim, and especially their goalkeeper Barbara Arenhart, are looking to use that experience as motivation in order to fulfill their goals.

"I think the more experience you have, the more you can use the team when big games like these are coming up. For me, the most important is that we can stay calm. All of us. And we can just play attack by attack and defence by defence,” says the 37-year-old.

“This is the thing I can do to help my teammates to just stay in the moment. The nerves are of course here even though I'm experienced, I'm very much looking forward to this game and I'm very excited. But I think being in the moment and being present in the moment of the game is what helps the most and this is what I try to bring for all these years in handball because this I think is the one of the details that makes the difference in games like that," Arenhart says.

The Brazilian is one of the top 10 goalkeepers in the EHF's top-tier competition this season based on saves as well as penalty saves, and Krim had the best defensive record in group B with only 384 goals conceded. However, Arenhart is striving for more.

"I'm not only satisfied with our progress so far this season, but also proud of our team. We have had some lows as expected because we have dealt with some injuries and sickness during this first part of Champions League. What we did so far it's a big thing for us. We've got huge victories in this process so I'm very satisfied and proud.

“When it comes to me and to my individual performance I would always like to be better and I hope in this next part of the Champions League it's going to be possible to have more saves. But the most important for me is to help the team as much as I can. If I stop wanting to be better, then I can stop playing handball," adds Arenhart.

The upcoming tie against CSM Bucuresti will see Arenhart & co. face the likes of Cristina Neagu, Emilie Arntzen and Trine Østergaard among others, and when asked about whether she has a special plan to stop them Arenhart says: "I have a big respect for all those names. I think all of them in CSM are great players and have great titles and great history behind them so we are really trying to focus this week on every move we can, the small details and the one little thing extra that we can know or we can see can really help in an important moment.

“It is always a challenge but for me this is the best thing to play against best players in the world and these will not be different now. I'm just looking very much forward because the better, the bigger the challenge and the more I like it. I really have my own plans but I can also not share this here," she says.

Arenhart outlines the strong team chemistry among the players as one of Krim's biggest qualities and she has full trust in her teammates in accomplishing a positive result in the first leg in front of their own fans in the Stožice Arena ahead of the return leg in Romania's capital next week.

"I would say our biggest strength is that we are a very good team. We are really a team in and out of the field. I think we know each other a lot so we know how to keep up together in moments when we need. In this kind of games we have shown already that we are ready to fight as a team. I really think that we have a large bench as well so we have a lot of quality players that can play in this kind of important games and for me this is one of the big keys of our team so far in the Champions League. I think that all of us can play against everyone so this is a big strength," Arenhart believes.

The open-minded Arenhart is always eager to face new challenges, as she revealed in This Is Me: Barbara Arenhart. She earned her nickname ‘20 Shades of Saves’ by making clutch saves in decisive matches.

"The nickname ‘20 Shades of Saves’ is something that will probably stay with me forever. It was a such a hard game we played with Odense when I was with Buducnost. We had a horrible trip of two days in Corona time. We couldn't fly so we drove with the bus almost 40 hours arriving on Friday and on Saturday we had the game against Odense,” Arenhart remembers.

“I was awarded the best player of the game and then I got this nickname from the EHF which I really like. The meaning of it says it all. For me it's a privilege to have this kind of nickname."

Arenhart is no stranger to playing on Romanian courts as she spent one season playing for CS Minaur Baia Mare back in 2014/15, and she knows what awaits Krim Mercator Ljubljana.

"It's been almost 10 years since I played in Minaur, but playing in Romania against Romanian teams, you need to expect this special atmosphere. So, the advice I can give to my teammates is just to stay calm and focused on ourselves because this can be a huge help to have to play in these atmospheres. I personally love it, but it can also be very annoying in terms of communication because it's too loud and sometimes we cannot hear each other.

“We have had this experience already so I don't think this will be a big problem for us. We already earned that knowledge and experience by being there.

“My expectations are huge for this game, I think both of us want to go further so it's going to be a very tough game. But we are working very hard in the past weeks to achieve the victory at home. I'm really expecting a beautiful battle between the two of us," concludes Arenhart.

Photos © Sasa Pahic Szabo & Jozo Cabraja / Kolektiff Images