The iconic sports venue in Munich - the Olympic Park and its hall - will soon witness a handball spectacle, and for the seventh time in history, Montenegro will also be a part of it.
The "Lions" are slowly being completed after seven days ago they started preparations for the European Championship, which starts in Germany on January 10.
The coach Vlado Šola can now count on all the invited players, except goalkeepers Nebojša Simić and Nikola Matović, as well as right back Risto Vujačić, who will join the national team on Saturday.
Among those who recently arrived is Montenegro's right back Stefan Čavor.
"We are working well, this is now a new national team, the coach has been with us for about half a year and it is difficult to organize everything in these three cycles that we have had so far, but we are going step by step, building our form and trying to prepare as well as possible" , said Čavor.
The rivals of our selection in Munich will be Hungary (January 12), Iceland (14) and Serbia (16), and the two best selections advance to the main round.
"We can't talk much about the group at the moment, of course our goal is to try to get to the second stage, but I think this time we have three tough opponents and we have a tough job ahead of us," Čavor added.
The "lions" will have their first test match before the EP on Friday in Stara Pazova when they will play North Macedonia. After that, on January 4 and 5 in Poreč, they will have matches with Croatia and Slovenia.
"We have three great games against Croatia, Slovenia and North Macedonia, but it is important that we have a lot of time for preparations and, as I said, we are working hard to build the best possible form," emphasized the defender of Germany's Veclar.
In the beginning of November, Vlad Šola's boys showed in the EHF week against Romania (38:28) that they are slowly improving their form after the weaker games in the qualifiers and the defeat against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"The match with Romania was our quality performance after the matches with Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it was a friendly match and we can't look at everything through it too much," Čavor added.
Kaluđerović: Step by step
Our second guard Vasilije Kaluđerović thinks similarly to his Čavor.
"The group is very difficult, but we need to go step by step, we should not focus on any rival in particular, because every match is important - we will give our maximum and whatever will be will be," said Kaluđerović.
What is pleasing is the atmosphere among the "lions"
"The positive energy is visible in training and outside of it - we are doing our best, we are preparing, we are going step by step... This is the first time we have started preparations so early, it will mean test matches for us and I hope that we will be ready to enter the championship". concluded Kaluđerović
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