For the first time in a major competition, Montenegrin handball players appeared in Scandinavia in 2008, and 18 years later they will return there once again to write their eighth page at the European Championships.
A place at the EHF Euro, which will be organized by Denmark, Norway and Sweden in January 2026, was secured before the final round of qualifications, so today's match in Bar against Slovakia (18 p.m.) is an ideal opportunity for the "lions" and fans to celebrate their departure to the seventh consecutive continental championship together.
Our national team now wants to thank the fans in some way for being there for them even when the results weren't ideal.
- We remain indebted to our audience and we want to say goodbye with a victory. I expect a full "Topolica" and great support from the stands - he said Aleksandar Bakić, wing of Montenegro.
Great result after the Italian nightmare
The match on the Adriatic will thus put an end to the first cycle with the new coach. Didier Dinar - The "lions" recorded three wins, a draw and a loss with the legendary Frenchman and booked their ticket to the north of Europe as runners-up.
- We finished the job in terms of placement and this is truly another great success for this generation. I say we still have a match in Bar to finish the qualifications in the right way in front of our fans - added the guy who Dinar is increasingly using in both attack and defense.
Perhaps qualifying for the EHF Euro from a group with Hungary, Finland and Slovakia was somewhat expected, but just a year earlier, Italy was also a problem.
"After being eliminated by Italy, and a really big failure, we have achieved a great result again. This generation has great quality, I hope this is just one in a series of big competitions in which we will compete," Bakić pointed out.
Victory at last
The match with Slovakia has no significance in terms of results, but the Montenegrin handball players want to finish the qualifications in the right style, so it should be expected that they will perceive this match as a key one on the road to the European Championship.
- We want to end the qualifiers with a win, especially because we are playing in front of our home crowd - he is clear Radojica Čepić.
The central defender of the “Lions”, along with Branko Vujović, was one of Montenegro's striking forces throughout the qualifications.
- We still have room to improve our game until January, we will continue to work even better - Čepić has no dilemma.
It's time for Slovakia, a team that Montenegro defeated 38:35 in the first match played in Košice.
- We are very happy because we achieved this success. We did the job we needed to do, but we also want to finish the group as well as possible - concluded Čepić.
Coming out of the nightmare after the disaster against Italy in the World Cup play-offs couldn't have been better - going to Scandinavia could be the harbinger of many new big competitions.
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