Adžić: There is a thin line between glory and despair

In the first leg of last season’s Women’s EHF Champions League final in Hungary, Budućnost lost 29:27 against Györi Audi ETO KC with players in their squad such as, Bojana Popović, Katarina Bulatović, Maja Savić, Ana Đokić, and Sonja Barjaktarović.

Bearing that in mind, a defeat against the same opponent with a younger Budućnost squad, who are now without all of the previously mentioned players is not considered a huge upset.

However, a 27:17 defeat and a particularly bad performance by Dragan Adžić’s team was not anticipated.

"They say there is a thin line between glory and despair, and my players didn’t learn that. Györ goalkeeper, Katrine Lunde Haraldsen, was very good but our bad decisions in the offense helped her to have a fantastic evening.

"Our insecurity in attack was then transferred to the defense," Dragan Adžić said.

The Montenegrin champions had just one good spell of five minutes in the match, when they managed to come back from 1:5 down to tie the game at 6:6 after 15 minutes.

After that short revival, it was one-way traffic for the home team.

Budućnost’s coach added that he expected more from his team in all aspects of the game.

"We did not properly enter the match. This is a great experience for our young team and I believe that we will draw the right lessons from this game for the next matches in the Main Round.

“There is a big difference between the two teams in experience, but we were obviously not mentally ready and sufficiently engaged, keeping in mind what the quality of the opponent was.

"EHF EURO 2012 has left a mark on the players who played in Serbia, while it was obvious that the other players, except Dragana Cvijić, who has played at a high level, don’t have enough experience for this level of competition.

The players failed to convert 100% of their opportunities, and when that’s the case, then you are very vulnerable, as it was demonstrated in this match," Adžić added.

With 17 goals scored, Budućnost just avoided their worst ever scoring perfomance in the competition's history, with the record standing from 6 February 2005 when Budućnost were defeated 18:16 in Podgorica against another Hungarian team, Dunaferr.

“It’s not a problem to lose a game, but it’s a problem when the game is lost in such a way.

"Now we have to work and get ready for the next challenge. We need to do much better than in Györ, and I am convinced that we will not miss the focus and motivation against the other strong rivals in our group," Budućnost’s goalkeeper Clara Woltering said.

Former Budućnost right wing, Jovanka Radičević (who will move to Vardar Skopje in the summer), scored two goals for Györi Audi ETO KC in the game and said that the Hungarian champions had prepared well for the game against Budućnost.

“To be honest, we expected stronger resistance from them. But in Podgorica it will certainly be much more difficult, because we are aware that was not the real Budućnost.

“Although we got a big win, we will remain firmly on the ground, because there are many more games to came,” Radičević stated.

Budućnost will try to get a first victory in the Main Round on Sunday, 10 February in Podgorica against Larvik, who beat Randers 25:19 in their opening game.

"After such a perfomance against Györ, it will be even more difficult against Larvik.

“However, this is the Main Round, every opponent is great. We'll see how we stand and if the players are ready for this level,” concluded Adžić.