For a long time, it seemed that the Montenegrin water polo players would achieve a routine victory over France - in the end, they celebrated 13:12 and carried three points into the main round of the European Championship.
There was excitement at the end, the rival came back from minus five and had an attack with a player more to tie the game, but Dušan Matković removed the dilemma with a goal 28 seconds before the end for 13:11.
"We expected strong resistance from the French, but we should have maintained the game from the first two and a half quarters. Afterwards, there was another decline in the game, which is not the first time this has happened to us. We need to pay attention to that, because there is no time to fix things later," said Balša Vučković, the hero of the five-goal triumph.
Points are being written.
"The victory is the only positive thing from this match. We need to work on our mistakes and properly prepare for what awaits us in the rest of the competition," added the young Primorac ace.
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Vlado Popadić knows that Montenegro had to defeat France.
"We knew that Hungary was the favorite for first place in the group. Against France, we opened well and controlled the match, but we started to guard the score too early. The opponent used that to start pressing. We won three points, we are second in the table and now we are going match by match," Popadić pointed out.
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