Injured by a serious injury to coxswain Marta Batinović and disappointed after their first defeat at the World Championship, the "lionesses" do not have much time to rest - tomorrow in Gothenburg they will face a new rival on the way to the quarterfinals.
Montenegrin handball players against Senegal (Saturday, 15.30:26 p.m.) are chasing their fourth World Cup triumph, and their first in the main stage. After the defeat against Croatia (25:XNUMX), it is clear that victory is the only choice, if Bojana Popović's girls want to qualify for the knockout phase.
"We have a very specific opponent waiting for us. We saw that they played well against Croatia as well as against Sweden. So I think we have to fight, to focus on defense and to score certain easier goals than to struggle with them during our attack, because they are very physically strong, and they also play good defense," said Matea Pletikosić, our center back, from Sweden.
Unlike the "lionesses", Senegal has no chance for the quarterfinals, but with a victory over China and a draw against Croatia, they won the main round. At the start of the competition in Gothenburg, I beat Hungary.
"They are a fighting team, they are physically large, fast and strong, so it will certainly not be easy for us, we will have to focus until the beginning on making our defense as good as possible, to try to avoid six-on-six duels with them in attack and to try let's score as many easy goals as possible", Jelena Despotović, the left back of Montenegro, thinks similarly to Matea.
What is still most important - our handball players hold the fate of the quarterfinals in their own hands, and in some combinations, one victory from the next two matches could lead them to the top eight. However...
"I think we should focus on the first match that follows, which is Senegal, and not think about what and how to proceed - whether there will be any calculations. The most important thing is to win the next match," Pletikosić explained.
The same message came from Jelena Despotović.
"We have to turn to the next rival, Senegal must definitely be won in order to enter the next phase. We only think that everything is in our hands and that against a difficult opponent like Senegal we have to do our best".
We did not underestimate Croatia, Marta's injury affected us
Although throughout history Montenegro has had much better results than Croatia, that selection has always been an unsolvable puzzle for the "lionesses" at major competitions - it was the same last night in Gothenburg. And it seems that everything "went downhill" when the goalkeeper of Montenegro, Marta Batinović, tore her knee ligaments at the beginning of the game.
"At no point did we underestimate Croatia, we knew it would be a difficult match... I think we were a bit empty when we came to the match, we were also affected by everything that happened with Marta, and maybe our mistakes at the beginning, we got into a certain nervousness... In the end, we fought and showed that we can come back in difficult moments. Of course, regrets remain, but we will move on - everything and more depends on us. We need to focus on us and our game and everything will be fine," says Marta.
In the last thirty seconds, the Lionesses had a chance for a draw that would have been as big as a victory...
"We had a lot of chances to turn the match against Croatia in our favor. However, they took two points, and we were left with regrets because of the defeat, but because of Marta," concluded Jelena Despotović.
GROUP I
Saturday
15.30h Senegal - Montenegro
18.00:XNUMX Croatia - Cameroon
20.30 Hungary - Sweden
Monday
15.30 Cameroon - Senegal
18.00:XNUMX Hungary - Croatia
20.30:XNUMX p.m. Montenegro - Sweden
Earlier
Montenegro - Croatia 25:26
Senegal - Hungary 20:30
Sweden - Cameroon 37:13
Bonus video:
