From the special reporter "Vijesti"
The morning after the defeat by Denmark in the semi-finals of the 15th European Championship, Montenegrin handball players appeared in the "Stožice Arena" to attend the mandatory press briefing.
It was obvious that they were tired, sad because of the missed chance to reach the finals, but also determined to give the last atom of strength in tomorrow's match for 3rd place (17.45:XNUMX p.m.).
The question is whether that will be enough, because France is objectively better, as it proved in the main stage in Skopje, when it won 27:19.
It is also unknown how the "lionesses" will react after losing the semi-final, because they were convinced that they could triumph.
"It's not easy to overcome some things, but when you come to the final weekend, with the three best teams in the world, you have to have a little lower expectations and put less pressure on yourself, to enjoy yourself. We have to be realistic in some situations and get out of those defeats more easily", emphasized Bojana Popović.
The 3rd place matchup is usually won by the team that can more easily accept defeat in the semi-finals.
"The emotional discharge was great both for us and for the French women, who are less tired and will recover more easily. But, given that they expected and performed against Norway as if they were the favorites for the final, it probably won't be easy for them either. The defeat was hard for all of us, especially because of the high consumption of the same players throughout the tournament, but what awaits us is the fight for a medal. We are playing with the Olympic champion, maybe it is easier, because we have already felt them, than if it was Norway, which is raising its form through the championship and playing the best and most important matches", emphasizes the coach.
Milena Raičević played the semi-final under injections and will hardly be able to help against France.
"We will see who will be able to, Mika is under a big question mark. For the rest, we will see what kind of role they will play, depending on their recovery, because several players, to put it bluntly, are really exhausted".
In one competition, it is difficult to get the same rival twice, which can be an advantage for Montenegro.
"That sentence is used in situations like this, but France is a very good team. She showed the best game in both groups, and in the semifinals she was excellent in the 1st half, while Norway did not break her with several good goalkeeping defenses and easy goals. France had no answer to that, because neither in the first nor the main phase did they have such opponents, they did not know how to deal with such resistance. I knew it would be very difficult for her against Norway and I predicted this outcome, but not by such a big margin."
Olivier Krumboltz's team has not won a medal since 2016, when it was the Olympic vice-champion, only at the World Championship in Japan in 2019.
"France will certainly try to get the most out of this championship and beat us one more time." We know where we made mistakes in the first match, we had a lot of technical mistakes and gave them about 10 goals. We must not allow that now. The goal is to reduce the number of mistakes and to repeat the defensive situations that were good and raise the level in attack".
How will you cope if Milena Raičević is unable to play?
"How we must. We have players who did not play, they will get another chance to show that those were bad days, that they should be counted on. They didn't spend much, they can do that now and take part in winning a big medal. Nothing can be earned without great struggle and giving, here's another opportunity to show that they deserve to be there," concluded Popović.
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