From the special reporter "Vijesti"
The morning after the defeat by Denmark in the semi-finals of the 15th European Championship, Montenegrin handball players spent the morning at the Stožice Arena, where they attended 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 tonight'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. However, the Olympic champion will probably be shaken by the convincing loss to Norway in the semi-finals (28:20).
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.
Matches for 3rd place are usually won by the team that accepts defeat in the semi-finals more easily, and for Montenegro, an additional motive will be that the team wants the representative career of Jovanka Radičević to have a perfect end.
"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 entire tournament, but we have a fight for a medal ahead of us. We are playing with the Olympic champions, maybe it is easier, because we have already felt them, than if it was Norway, which raises its form through the championship and plays the best and most important matches", the coach pointed out.
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 what was bad 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 haven't played much, 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 is another opportunity to show that they deserve to be there", concluded Popović.
MARTA BATINOVIĆ: LET'S GO FURTHER - TO THE MEDAL
The loss to Denmark was hard on the players, but now is not the time to think about it.
"We all expected much more, it's not easy to forget that, but we have to." The match for 3rd place is waiting for us, we have to raise our heads and play the best we can. No time to cry. We have to get together, be one and play the best we can", said Marta Batinović.
The Lionesses convincingly lost the first match against France, now they hope it will be different.
"Whenever we played six on six, it was good. That way we can match them, but if we repeat 21 technical mistakes we can't beat anyone, let alone a superpower like France. We have to stop the counters and their fast wings, we can match them in positional play".
The slow rhythm is the chance of Bojana Popović's team.
"We can impose our own pace and not have to defend the goalkeeper. In the semi-finals, she was not up to par, and she has a young replacement, and it was immediately felt. We have to play patiently, not to let them run past us and score easy goals. That's how they gain strength. There is nothing - a great fight and we will move on, to the medal", said Batinović in the verse.
DARLO: I'M SAD THAT I'M PLAYING AGAINST MY FRIENDS
The French women suffered a convincing defeat against Norway (28:20) in the semi-finals.
"We are really disappointed both because of the defeat and because of the edition, because we did not play as we wanted. We want to show that everything we did was not in vain. It is important that we return home with a medal," said Kleopatra Darlo.
The experienced goalkeeper defends for Brest, where Đurđina Jauković, Itana Grbić and Tatjana Brnović play.
"I am sad that we are playing the match for 3rd place against Montenegro, because I have several friends in that team and I know that one of us will be really disappointed. We played a really good game against them in Skopje, we have to repeat what worked well. I also know that they will have a lot of fans and invest a lot of energy to beat us".
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