Pašić: We can play with everyone

Tomorrow, Montenegrin basketball players will travel to Sweden, for the first match of the new qualification cycle for the European Championship.

The duel with the Swedish women is scheduled for Sunday.

"As always, my expectations are positive when it comes to the national team. I believe that we can play with any national team when we fulfill the tasks set by the selector. Last night we just watched the video of the game against Sweden that we played at the last European Championship, and that was great to see that we can really play with them. That game came after big changes for us, the departure of the coach and some older players. Now we fully understand what the coach is asking of us, we defined that when we got together, I think that we have specified a lot of things. I believe in my team, I believe in energy and that we can play with everyone, to beat everyone, only if we are at our level," said the defender of our selection, Jovana Pašić.

When asked how different Sweden will be in the qualifiers compared to the one from the European Championship, Pašić answered:

"Sweden beat us at the European Championship, so they will probably go into that game a little easier, which can be our big advantage. I repeat, it was our first game at the European Championship, after big changes, so we are a little bit in pain started that match, and it was the bad first quarter, until we relaxed, that cost us the victory. Later, we had the opportunity to take the lead and bring the game to an end. We lacked luck and experience then, and to relax a little more, and that's why I believe that this can be our advantage and that we will do everything to win every game, starting with the one against Sweden".

The "Reds" will be more rested, because Sweden plays its first away match against Israel tonight.

"That's one of our strengths. We just need to be smart and respect everything we agreed on these days, what the coach asked us to do, and use all our strengths. And one is certainly that the Swedish women will be more tired from the trip , and we, in my opinion, have a much more energetic team, we can run better, we certainly have better energy, so we should use all that," concluded Jovana Pašić.

In addition to Sweden, Montenegro's rival in Group B of the qualification is Israel. In addition to the first-placed selection, the six best runners-up from the nine groups will also advance to the EP.

"We are aware that Sweden is the favorite, but I believe that if we do not repeat the same mistakes as at the European Championship, we can win. We were inexperienced at the European Championship, for many of us players it was the first European Championship, but we welcome these qualifications with greater with the number of stronger games, so we know what awaits us. If we do everything that is asked of us, with the energy we have and if we play hard from the beginning, we can achieve victory," said center Bojana Kovačević.