The Montenegrin handball team was convincingly defeated by the Faroe Islands (37:24) in the second round of the European Championship tonight. From the beginning, the "lions" had no solution for their rivals, but after the first half, the Faroese had seven goals to spare (19:12), and in the second half they only increased their advantage and achieved their first ever victory at the European Championships.
"The Faroe Islands are a serious team. They did everything they could to slow us down and that caused us a big problem. In the first half, we were static, we hesitated too much, we were not decisive and that cost us the most. When we won the ball in defense, we missed an empty goal in attack, which further contributed to raising their morale and ours falling. Their goalkeeper was excellent, as was the entire squad. In any case, we still have a match against Switzerland. We need to recover, rise and try to achieve a positive result," said coach Didier Dinar after the match.
Branko Vujović pointed out that the "lions" lack continuity in their game.
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"We showed once again that we may not be up to the big European teams. We lack continuity in the game. We played very well against Slovenia, tonight we showed a different side. We have to learn from our mistakes and move forward. It's difficult, it's possible that the match against Slovenia also affected us. Today we showed that we are not up to it. We don't have time to cry, we have to get ready for Switzerland," said Vujović.
Our team has a match against Switzerland (Tuesday, the 18th).
"We played completely differently than against Slovenia. We didn't have the same passion, the same desire. The French had more desire. I think this atmosphere 'ate' us. They showed that they are much better, their goalkeeper had an outstanding game. We need to turn to the duel against Switzerland, which is important because of the draw for the World Cup. Every game is important. Let's forget the defeat as soon as possible, play the match against Switzerland the right way and win two points," added Luka Radović.
The "Lions" could not stop Oli Mitun, Hakuna av Teigum and Elias A Shipagotu, who scored a total of 27 goals.
"We didn't like their seven-on-six game. We trained, prepared, watched videos. They have two great players - Mitun and Šipagotu, who set everything in motion. If we stop one, the other is there - there are immediately passes to the wings, pivots... We looked helpless. We need to raise our heads as soon as possible, to get ready for Switzerland," said Milorad Bakić.
Captain Mirko Radović points out that this defeat hurts.
"I think the game against Slovenia wore us out and that was felt today, even though we promised ourselves that we wouldn't let it get us down. We didn't manage to rise above it. It's hard to say anything after a game like this. I feel sorry for the guys, for our fans. It's hard to analyze now. But this defeat hurts. We have to prepare for the next game, to give our all. To learn from this defeat and to go for victory against Switzerland at all costs. For our way forward," Radović told RTCG.
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