Bojana Popović: Good draw, it's important that all the girls are healthy

At the November European Championship, one of the hosts of which was Montenegro, the "lionesses" used their home field to take a crucial step towards the semi-finals, and then surprised France in the duel for bronze.

Then they surprised everyone, and they will not be able to count on the element of surprise at the World Cup in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

The good thing is that the draw was favorable for the "lionesses", because they already know who will be their main opponents for reaching the quarterfinals - the Hungarian women in the first stage and the Swedish women in the main stage.

Montenegro will play in group B with Hungary, Cameroon and Paraguay, and they will meet teams from group A, which includes Sweden, Croatia, China and Senegal.

"There are two strong national teams in all groups, and Hungary is the main competitor in the preliminary phase. Paraguay and Cameroon are unknown for us at the moment, but we have enough time to analyze them and look at their games from the last competitions. "Montenegro has not played with them until now, but soon we will find out everything we need to know," said Bojana Popović.

It is clear that the battle for 1st place will be fought with the Hungarians.

"Hungary has a young generation that is on the rise, it is certain that they have great quality and that in the main round, together with Sweden and us, they will fight for the two places that lead to the quarter-finals. We can say that we had a good time, but we also know that the most important thing is to be complete in November and to travel to Sweden with the strongest squad", emphasizes the coach.

Before the World Cup, the "lionesses" will also play two qualifying matches for the EHF Euro.

"In October, we have duels against Bulgaria and Turkey, which are a good prelude to what awaits us at the World Cup." We are close to an agreement with Croatia, against whom we should play a friendly match before the WC, that has not changed despite the fact that they expect us in the main round of the World Cup. November is still far away, we have to go step by step and make the club season the way we want it to be. It is important that all the girls have a significant amount of minutes and that they come healthy to the gathering", concluded Popović.

The World Championship will be held from November 29 to December 17.