Holmris: "We have to play full speed and risk a lot"

For the Swiss women's national team the Women's EHF EURO 2016 Qualification continues with two matches against Iceland on 10 and 13 March.

Both teams have lost their respective first qualifiers against Germany and France in Rounds 1 and 2 in Group 7, but for head coach Jesper Holmris the upcoming games offer the chance for his team to claim its first points.  

ehf-euro.com: Jesper Holmris, looking ahead at the two upcoming matches against Iceland, how do you rate your team's chances?
Jesper Holmris: For us these are two games in the current campaign in which we are able to claim some points - in particular when we play at home. However, we are aware that everything has to work for us to beat Iceland.

ehf-euro.com: A year ago you played three test matches against Iceland and beat them once. Do you expect similar games this time around?
Jesper Holmris: Yes, I think so. More or less both teams will be fielding a similar squad. It will be again the very tight Icelandic defence facing our more attacking defence. Or their physicality against our speed. What we learned from the games is that we have to defend better, in particular against their line player. And we have to be more successful with our counter attacks, otherwise it will be difficult to score. But in general if we want to win these games, we need a top performance of our defence and of our goalkeepers.

ehf-euro.com: You have nominated some experienced players but also quite a few hopefuls. What do you expect from the team?
Jesper Holmris: I hope for a lot of carefreeness. We have to play full speed and risk a lot. I'm convinced that the young player bring that necessary level of cheekiness into the game. And then of course we need the experienced players to take over responsibilty. By the way, routine is not a matter of age. For example, Kerstin Kündig (22) is already a very smart player. We have to be above our best in these games - we need several players who just have a really good day when the games come around.

This interview first appeared on the Swiss Handball Federation's website