Dinar: We're going to Koper to fight, Ćorsović and Bakić were excellent; Vujović: Everything is still open

The World Championship is a goal away after the match in "Morača", but the Montenegrin handball players have the right to believe in a miracle in Koper after their performance in the first playoff match against Slovenia.

The "Lions" were defeated 29:28, in a match in which they were losing 16:9, then took a 19:18 lead with fanatical play and in the end did not have the strength to overthrow their great rival.

"We showed character and I think we played a good match, positive, especially in the defensive phase. It took us time to find our rhythm, but we managed to come back and make up for the big deficit," said coach Didier Dinar at a press conference.

In the following match, Montenegro was an equal rival to Slovenia.

"In the second half we played much better in all segments. The players were good, genuine, the crowd was fantastic, all in all a great game," added the legendary Frenchman.

Miodrag Ćorsović played his best match for the national team - he scored seven goals from eight attempts in attack, while also holding down the defense.

"He was very good in both directions. In addition to him, I would also highlight Milorad Bakić, who did a great job in defense in almost all positions - from number two to number five. That's why I said how important defense is and that in situations when Ćorsović needs a break, Bakić is very important in that role," Dinar explained and emphasized.

"There were, of course, other players who did a good job."

Montenegro showed against Slovenia what it did not in January when, after a dramatic defeat to the "dragons", it experienced debacles with the Faroe Islands and Switzerland.

"Every competition is different. If we had beaten Slovenia then, we would have played a completely different tournament. However, we lost that match and because of that, we obviously failed psychologically," believes the Montenegrin coach.

The second leg is in three days in Koper - what can Montenegro hope for?

"We have a rematch ahead of us, which we know will be very difficult. However, I believe in my team, in sports anything is possible. We are going to Slovenia to fight and see what we can get out of it," concluded Dinar.

Captain Branko Vujović once again led the "lions" in the right way - this time from the center back position.

"We played a good match. In the first half, some of our shots didn't go in, maybe we shot irrationally over their two tallest players. When we were getting opportunities from set pieces, Klemen Ferlin defended, but we didn't give up, we fought, we showed how much we wanted to," said Vujović.

The barrage is not over.

"Everything is still open. They are more satisfied because they won and are playing the second leg at home, but we will try to surprise them."

The "lions" showed their fanaticism again - especially after they were down by seven goals.

"We respected the agreement from the locker room, not so much in a tactical sense, but more in the sense of fighting until the last minute, whatever the result. It turned out to be minus seven, but we would have fought in the same way even if we had been leading. Thank you to the boys for this approach, I hope it will be repeated in the second leg. Thank you also to the fans for coming in such large numbers, it was clear how much they mean to us," concluded Vujović.