From the special reporter "Vijesti"
The giants of world handball seem to be destined for the Montenegrin national team at the start of major competitions - last year, a collision with the two-time consecutive champion of the planet Denmark at the start of the EHF Euro, now the first match at the World Championship against a selection that played the last four finals at the continental championships and won four medals from 2020 to 2022, Spain.
The "lions" have a hellish task ahead of them, but they are convinced that they are up to it. All of Zoran Roganović's team seem relaxed, and although they know that Spain is not threatened just like that, they assure that they will show that the good performances at the European Championship were not a coincidence. We will know if that optimism is justified tonight, after the match that starts at 20.30 pm in the magnificent "Tauron Arena" in one of the most beautiful cities in Eastern Europe, Krakow.
"We are going against the best again. Last time it was Denmark, now it's Spain, the very top of European and world handball. It won't be easy, even though we played two friendly matches, we still need some time for some details that should be paid attention to," the selector pointed out.
Since Roganović sat on the bench, Montenegro has played against Denmark three times, twice against Sweden, once against France, Croatia, Iceland, Slovenia... but the 45-year-old from Cetinje points out that he has never had such a demanding match.
"I think the biggest challenge so far for this team is Spain, which plays perhaps the best handball in the world." It will be a very demanding game, but what we did in Doha meant a lot to us. We had a lot of time in an isolated environment to prepare in the best possible way. We will do our best against the Spaniards, because we have nothing to lose and a lot to gain."
And the man who has been in Sweden for almost two decades will face great trials, because his opponent will be the brilliant strategist Giordi Ribera, who in 2016 became the coach of "Spain" and won five medals at major competitions.
"This is a big challenge for me too, because on the other side is Ribera, who, in my opinion, is currently the best coach in the world." There will be outsmarting, I don't want us to get into a situation where Spain has the initiative all the time, but we want to give them a headache too, let them think about our things too. We added something new, and of course we continue to believe in what got us here. The team is developing every day, we are looking to add details at every training session that will help us to establish ourselves in the top," said Roganović.
"Lions" knew that they had trouble with teams that play fast, but the coach tried to change that.
"The players came physically prepared, nobody missed a single training session, which makes me very happy. Everyone has been working in their clubs since the summer and contacted our physical fitness coach, and I am very satisfied with how we ran in two games with Qatar. Everyone is ready to play all these games, I rotate 12-13 players in each match. So, there are no calculations, the match with Spain is very important. I want us to be competitive against her, to show that we can play with everyone".
Compared to last year's European Championship, the Spanish team does not have the great wings Aleiš Gomes and Aitor Arinj, their colleague in the position Valero Rivera Folć has not been in the national team for a long time, and there is no experienced right back Eduardo Gurbind either. Now, however, there is the best player of this generation, Alex Duyshebayev, who was absent last year due to injury.
"It is true that Gomes is missing, but the Spaniards have three or four players in each position and they could have come with two national teams. It is known what their juniors and cadets do at the championships for younger categories. Kanjeljas, who is the most experienced active handball player in the world, will not be in the squad, because he suffered an injury, but it is less important when someone is missing, because they believe in a system that brings them results for a long time", pointed out Roganović, noting that everyone can't wait to championship starts and he is convinced that there will be a large number of our fans in the hall.
Reporting made possible by Lob
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