The Croatian handball national team ended the first round of the European Championship by defeating Sweden, and in two days a new challenge awaits in the second phase of the competition, a test against Iceland.
Menu Dagur Sigurdsson he emphasized that Croatia must look exclusively at itself and its own performance.
We must concentrate on ourselves, it doesn’t matter how Iceland plays. We have to be at a high level and do our best. Prepare well, we know all the national teams very well so we know who we are dealing with. It’s more a matter of directing our performance in the right direction rather than thinking about what the opponent will do.
Analyzing the defeat to Sweden, Sigurdsson said:
I don’t think we were ready enough. I don’t know if it was strength or the fact that we had two tough games at the beginning, but in my opinion we started too slowly and weren’t aggressive enough in attack. We didn’t enter the defense properly, we didn’t fight for the positions we had to fight for. That was the problem and they are us punished with easy goals from the counter attack, said the coach of Croatia, reports HRT.
Captain Ivan Martinović he did not hide his disappointment after the game.
Very bad game both ways, it wasn’t us. Again there was some stresssome panic from the start. We didn’t play our game, we didn’t play what we agreed to. The defense did not function properly, we did not shoot as we know how and there were too many technical errors. In the end, this result came, minus eight. We fought, but without a head. We should forget that as soon as possible, fix all these mistakes. No surrender, keep your head up, nothing is over yet.
Doorman Matej Mandic singled out assault as a key problem.
I think the offense was the problem today. Twelve, thirteen mistakes against Swedenthat feeds them. That’s how it was today, they scored easy goals. These are the teams that know how to take advantage of every mistake.
Speaking about the continuation of the competition, Mandić points out:
Now every game is a finalif we intend to do anything, if we intend to take a medal. I hope that we will rest well, above all rest our heads after this game and this, in my opinion, heavy defeat. Slovenia is the first opportunity to correct a mistake.
He thinks similarly Filip Glavaš:
We weren’t real, poor execution, lots of technical errors. The Swedes took advantage of that, they were the better team and deservedly won.
However, he believes in the character of the team.
We are used to being in difficult situations. We have that character, that spite and I hope it will work now. It’s up to us to get together, talk tonight, regenerate as much as possible and move on, Glavaš concluded.
(www.jabuka.tv | Photo: HRS)
