What it looks like when there is a great team on one side and a team that is far from it on the other was shown in the match between the senior national team of Montenegro and Croatia at "Maksimir" (4:0).
In the younger categories, the difference is not that big; for talented Montenegrin footballers, it obviously doesn't matter that on the other side are footballers who already wear the jerseys of Barcelona, Juventus, and Chelsea.
Our young national team was not impressed by Italy on home soil, despite the eventual defeat (2:1), and Sweden could do even less with players who already play in Europe, such as Runi Bardzi, Jonas Ruhi, Jonah Kusi-Asare...
The talent of Viktor Đukanović, Andrej Kostić, Vladimir Perišić, Marko Perović and other young men in red overshadowed one of the favorites in Group E of the European Championship qualifiers (2:0). And, after a miracle with even younger teams, Goran Perišić showed how to work with the U-21 team.
Montenegro was a much better rival, shaking the goalposts, but for a long time it seemed that Sweden would pull through this time, that they would leave Podgorica with a positive result... However, everything came together in stoppage time.
First, in the 95th minute, after a nice move by Perišić and Med Juković, Đukanović scored (with the help of the visiting goalkeeper), and in the 99th minute, Danilo Vukanić scored a great goal on the big night - in front of unfortunately almost empty stands.
"Swedish youths were 'shattered' under Gorica," wrote the Swedish "Aftonbladet".
The Scandinavian team was defeated by a guy who is very well known in Sweden - Đukanović is still a player of Hammarby, from which he arrived at Dunajska Streda on loan.
"We deserved a little luck at the end," the Swedish media outlet reported Djukanovic as saying.
Andrej Kostić, after scoring for Partizan on Friday, showed that he is unstoppable even for the slightly older Italians. The young falcons played a good match in Spezia, they led for a long time, had a point in their pocket for even longer, but even a defeat against the "azurino" can be a big lesson.
In fact, the match against Sweden four days later showed that this was exactly what it was - what they lost in the final to Italy, Perišić's men "grabbed" against Sweden.
The qualifiers for the 2027 European Championship, which will be played in neighboring countries (Albania and Serbia), have just begun, the group in which Montenegro is in is one of the most difficult, but after everything shown, the least the young falcons have the right to do is dream.
The next challenges are coming in a month when our boys will face an away game in Poland, followed by a duel with North Macedonia at home.
At a time when gloomy clouds were looming over the senior national team, some of our new football players sent a message that Montenegrin football is alive and has a future. We just need to know how to work with them in the right way in the coming years.
Some of them already deserve a call-up to the A selection - Robert Prosinecki should know that if he remains the selector, but so should his successor.
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