Our senior women's football team will play its first match in the new UEFA Nations League cycle tomorrow at noon in Baku.
Montenegro plays host to Azerbaijan at the start of Group C4, which also includes Lithuania, with whom Mirko Marić's team will play on Tuesday at 14 p.m.
The league starts against a well-known rival - Montenegro and Azerbaijan met in the previous edition of the Nations League. In both matches, the Azerbaijani team won - 1:0 in Podgorica and 3:0 in Baku.
"A familiar opponent, who beat us twice in the last three matches. I hope we learned something from those games, which is for my players to be aggressive when they have the ball, and to play simply when we have possession. If we do that, and we can, I believe we will overcome Azerbaijan," said coach Mirko Marić, optimistic.
Captain, Slađana Bulatović, points out that Azerbaijan is a well-known rival, but also that the players have a great desire to avenge their previous two defeats.
"We have a great motivation to show that we can do much better and that we are better. They are very aggressive, they have a footballing "arrogance" that we may not have, but that is why we have to do everything we can to match them in that segment," Bulatović believes.
Coach Marić believes that Montenegro can make a breakthrough in this cycle and advance to a higher rank, after reaching the play-offs twice as the second-placed team in the group stage. First place leads directly to League B.
"We will be preparing in that direction, we want to reach first place. It will depend on many factors, primarily whether all the players will be healthy and ready, but in any case we will try to give our maximum," Marić emphasized.
However, Lithuania is not an outsider in Group C4 either.
"This is the strongest team that could have fallen to us from the third pot. I think the group is equal and that the nuances will decide," concluded Marić.
Bulatović does not hide that she is satisfied with the progress of our women's football, but...
"When some results are achieved, it is normal to expect and want even more. We expect great things in this cycle, I think we are ready to achieve the goals we have set before," added Bualtović.
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