Buducnost win battle against Podravka

Buducnost T-Mobile are in Champions League form already! At least it’s sure that the champions of Montenego are in a very good physical condition. And when they are in such a good form, they played a great game on Wednesday evening in the Moraca hall.

The second half of Buducnost against Podravka Vegeta was splendid and they took a 34:30 (17:20) victory in the fifth round of the Regional League.

Like in the previous game with Hypo, the match between Buducnost and Podravka was a trilling encounter, a true fight from the first until the last minute. At the beginning of the game, the visitors showed their strength and after only 6 minutes Podravka were leading 7:1. It seemed that the time out at 5:1 called by the coach of Buducnost T-Mobile, Gyula Zsiga, didn’t work out. But, that was not case, since the home players than started to play better in attack and after 15 minutes they reduced the gap to only one goal (8:9).

Again, Podravka managed to increase the lead to three goals at halftime and the Croatian players after five minutes into the second half were leading by 22:18. From that moment Buducnost changed to a great defence and Barjaktarovic was secure in the goal. The backs, Radovic, Jovanovic and Bulatovic, were precise in attack and the Montenegrins took the lead for the first time at 23:22 after almost 41 minute.

In the next nine minutes the teams were scoring goal after goal and in the 50th minute Buducnost took a three-goal lead (28:25) to decide the game about three minutes from the end.

With eight goals Ana Radovic was the best scorer of Buducnost, followed by Marija Jovanovic with seven and Liudmila Mochalina with six goals. Sonja Barjaktarovic made 13 saves. The best scorer of the match was the right back of Podravka, Svitlana Pasicnik, who scored nine goals.

Comments from  the coaches

”My team was scared at the beginning of the match. Also, the deep defence of Podravka didn’t leave space for Jovanovic to shoot on goal, but the problem was that the other players were afraid to go for the goal. Our defence was bad and we conceded a lot of goals from the counterattack in the first 30 minutes. In the second half we showed our better face, Podravka scored only 10 goals in that period of the game and the goalkeepers did their job well. In attack we found the right solutions, we kept on scoring and I am happy about this win. We were behind for the whole first half, but the team showed great character. Thanks to our fans, who helped us in the crucial moments of the game,” said the coach of Buducnost T-Mobile Gyula Zsiga.

It was the first defeat of Podravka in the Regional League, ten days from the qualification tournament in Spain against Itxako (Spain), Leipzig (Germany) and Ormi-Loux Patras (Greece).

“Unfortunately, we must go through qualifications to get to the CL and Buducnost are already there. Accordingly, it was a great preparation match for the qualification tournament. I must congratulate both teams. I think the fans had the chance to watch very good handball game. We were better in the first half and in the second we tried to keep the rhythm but we didn’t succeed. The players from the bench couldn’t endure the pressure of the home players in the last 10 minutes and it’s a pity for that. I hope we will be ready for the qualification tournament as we are the favorites there,” said Zdravko Zovko, coach of Podravka.