Pálinger to stay in form

Eurohandball.com talks to Győri ETO key players, goalkeeper Katalin Pálinger and top scorer of the CL, Anita Görbicz.

Eurohandball.com: Your performance can be called promising only three weeks before the World Championship in France…

Katalin Pálinger: At the beginning of the season I was not in the expected form despite a lot of training with the goalkeeping coach, István Bakos. I hope that I can keep this level and I will play with self-confidence as I will need a lot of that at the World Championship. I hope that the national team will have such a solid defence as Győr had against Podravka from the 15th minute on.

Eurohandball.com: Did they show what you expected from them?

Pálinger: You cannot prepare so accurately on this level; I’m not a great fan of watching a lot of videos, just a couple of matches maybe. A lot depends on the given moment and on the position of the defender. I was not prepared to stand in a given corner of the goal as the world class players of Podravka have a wide shooting repertoire. I expected a tough match and an opponent that never gets tired. I was right: they fought until the end but we could win the game.

Eurohandball.com: What do you think about the form of the other players?

Pálinger: We missed many clear chances that is unusual. However, as long as we have the lead and rectify our mistakes, it’s okay. I’m only angry when someone misses a clear chance, we do not come back and the opponent scores. Luckily, this is does not usually happen with this team.

Eurohandball.com: What was your opinion about the game, Anita?

Anita Görbicz: Podravka defended quite harshly at the beginning that was surprising for us and they took a 1-4 lead. It was due to our bad defending and missed chances. In the next phase we made good fast breaks and we could take the lead back. Podravka are good enough not to allow us to take a very big lead. We made many mistakes by the end, we did not defend and all their attacks ended with a goal.