Ivović: We needed this sparring match

Before, as is rarely the case for an official match, the Montenegrin national team held a joint training session with Serbia in front of full stands at the open swimming pool in Škver in Herceg Novi.

Our best water polo players have been training in Herceg Novi for several days as part of preparations for the World Championship in Barcelona, ​​where the Serbian national team has been in the same context since a few days ago. That's how the two world water polo powers sparred the previous two days.

"This part of the preparations still falls under the term of hard and hard work, we are still working on physical preparation. Here, strong training continued, but since the Serbian national team is also there, we made, so to speak, a small break and to get out of the gym and strong swimming training. After those six days in Maribor where no training session in the pool was under two and a half hours and an hour and a half in the gym, we were at a tournament in Greece. However, it turned out that in the end we had a chance to win the first place in that tournament, which would really be phenomenal after such games. What is very important is that it has been shown that we have a team that can deal with all national teams and that our confidence is at an enviable level," said Aleksandar Ivović .

The coach of Serbia and the legend of their water polo, Dejan Savić, believes that the joint trainings contributed to everyone's preparation for the most important competition this year.

"We are very satisfied with how they received us here and for the first time we are at this wonderful new facility, which the city of Herceg Novi deserves. I have to thank the Jadran Water Polo Club and the Montenegrin Federation for their hospitality and for the attention shown and this kind of exchange. We are in a way the teams are similar in terms of individual quality, but we have different tactical approaches and variants in the game. Surely these training sessions will bring a lot to both of them. I must also say that I am pleasantly surprised by the presence of such an audience at one training session, and that is extremely rare for this sport, but in any case a very important thing for the promotion of water polo", stated Savić.

Ivović points out that Montenegro can win a medal.

- In any case, the true situation and how much we managed to do in these preparations will only be seen at the tournament in Budapest. The most important thing is that the whole team stays healthy, and yet we all have a huge desire and will to show that we can do something at the World Championship and I hope that with a little luck we can win some of the medals - concludes Leka.

Savić: The goal is to always be at the top

Both our national team and the Serbian national team are among the favorites in every tournament, so accordingly, the goals for Barcelona are similar.

"The goals are to always be at the top and to achieve that continuity. Well, now that some other things in our Federation and in general Serbian water polo are not functioning as they should at the moment and that these things outside the pool have a negative effect on everything is another matter, but this must not hinder us in our work and preparation to give our best in Barcelona," said Serbia coach Dejan Savić.