From the special reporter "Vijesti"
Montenegrin water polo players have already had one real test at the World Championship, it was against Hungary at the premiere when they were defeated by a score of 12:8.
Tomorrow they will have an equally difficult rival (19.30:XNUMX p.m.), perhaps even better than the hosts - the "sharks" meet Spain in a duel that determines the continuation of the World Cup and after which it will be known whether the fight for a medal or for placing from fifth to eighth place will follow.
The role of Montenegro is now such that relief would have to be turned into an advantage, because the reality is that the "red fury" is the favorite to reach the semi-finals.
"It's true that now it's less imperative. We wanted to enter the eight teams to have the opportunity to play with the best and to fight for the biggest. The pressure has been there so far, certainly nobody lacks motivation, and in general I can be satisfied because in the decisive moments in the group, like against Japan in the last quarter, we had stability in defense when the game had to be decided," said coach Vladimir Gojković.
Japan created problems for our team, but in a way it expected them.
"We knew it could be that kind of game. And now we have a big duel waiting for us and we know what we have to fight against. Spain does extremely well the things it insists on, which can only be stopped if we are focused all the time.
So, 32 minutes of a duel in which every detail matters.
"The key is to reduce the Spanish to the number of goals that we could counter. They play an aggressive defense and don't leave many free shots. We played at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, we were in a different composition then, but we were good throughout that Olympic cycle against them. At the Games, we reduced them to four or five shots in the last two quarters, we dominated, but also missed a lot. We have to take our chances, we must not miss like we did against the Hungarians, so that we can have a stable defense and keep match as long as possible in a draw," said Gojković.
The selector analyzed the previous four duels at the World Cup.
"We conceded 12 goals against the Hungarians, and later we saw that there were three or four situations where we had to defend ourselves. We were preparing for them. Such teams do not forgive. The duel with Japan is difficult to comment on, it is a completely different style, they have a large number of shots. And against Georgia it was good, true, with a large number of misses, but we will analyze everything when the competition is over," concluded Gojković.
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