Vujović: I will do my best for a good result, but I won't be sad even if we lose

From the special reporter "Vijesti"

Montenegrin handball has given birth to many legends in both men's and women's competition, but one star will shine in a few decades, as long as there are still people alive who will be able to start a conversation with the younger generations with the sentence: "Well, you don't know what kind of player he was." Veselin Vujović...

The famous man from Cetinje, the first winner of the IHF handball player of the year award when it was established in 1988, Olympic and world champion, three-time European club champion..., also proved himself as a coach. He was bronze with Slovenia at the 2017 World Cup after a spectacular turnaround against Croatia, and now he is on the bench for Iran.

For the second time, he will lead the team against the selection from the country where he was born, there is hope that he will be less successful than in 2018 at the European Championship with his "country", when he celebrated 28:19 in Zagreb. And it should be different, because the "lions" are better than the Iranians.

"Montenegro is, frankly and objectively, a big favorite compared to us. The only positive thing for us is that we have two points, and she has none, and if by chance some bad result happens to her, it would completely disrupt the plans Zoran Roganović. We would have to raise our game a lot compared to the match with Chile, but you can't compare editions and opponents from different games, each is a history for itself. It seems to you that you will go against someone easily, but it turns out to be difficult, and vice versa. The match is neither lost nor won before the start. If someone is better, they have to prove it on the field," Vujović told "Vijesti".

Of course, he won't care tonight (18:2 p.m.) in the "Tauron Arena" in Krakow, in the match of the XNUMXnd round of the World Championship.

"As the coach of Iran, I will do my best to achieve a good result, but I will not be particularly sad if we lose to Montenegro," said the Cetinje native, who celebrates his 62nd birthday in four days.

In the 1st round, Iran defeated Chile 25:24, although after a mistake it was Vujović (he asked the player to press the time-out button, because of which his team was sent off and was left without the ball) they lost 23:20 at five and a half minutes to go.

"The Chileans were the favorites, because they are standard participants in the world championships, but I expected our victory to be easier and more convincing. As far as I know this team, we didn't play 30-40 percent as objectively as we can. In the preparatory period, we played very well, but it turns out that it has nothing to do with the competition. With a lot of luck, which we fought for, we pulled through when the game was almost lost. If any of those shots, which our goalkeeper saved, had been a goal, I think the story would have been finished".

In the 1st round, Iran moved the boundaries, because for the first time in the planetary championships, it reached the triumph in the first stage. So far he has had two, but in the fight for placing from 21st to 24th place at the 2015 WC in Qatar.

"I don't remember that as a coach I was lucky in the finals, I always had to "bleed" to achieve something, but we were very lucky. This is the first victory of Iran in the first stage of the world championships, then I joke and say: How come I am in that place when history is happening? I'm happy for those people, the nation, and we'll see what happens next"

After the victory over Chile, he stayed and watched the "lions" defeat Spain (30:25).

"Montenegro didn't look bad at all, it was equal in most of the match, but the Spaniards have such a system, the development of a counterattack that, when a player misses a shot, they invent an impossible situation and score a goal. They play like that against the strongest and the weakest, they don't act like a bogeyman, because when you play against the Danes or the French you are terrified of their individual qualities, and then you come into the Spanish collective machine and it ends as it did. Montenegro did not disappoint, they did not come out of that game humiliated, but with good motivation. I'm sure she won't relax against us, although I'm trying to shift the burden of the favorite to her".

Who did you like the most in the Montenegro team?

"Simic it should not be emphasized, he keeps the team with defenses. We also saw in our game how important a factor the goalkeeper is. Bozo Andjelic, Nemanja Grbović i Branko Vujović were good for me, a Miloš Vujović had a problem with implementation. But, Gonzalo Perez de Vargas is a phenomenal goalkeeper, and the Spanish work very hard. I'm sure they know more about Montenegrin players than Zoran Roganović. When the group was drawn, they called the coaches of the teams where our national team members play, arranged all the videos, packed them and sent them to the goalkeepers, as well as to the players who directly watch some of them, so that they know everything down to the smallest details. We are still far away from such things, we always go for improvisation, for strength, for hand, whatever they would tell me". Vujović concluded with a smile.

Reporting made possible by Lob