29.10.2007, 03:41
Successful debut for Zovko

Podravka Vegeta won by five goals at home against Ribarroja after a close first half.

Successful debut for Zovko

Coach of Podravka Vegeta, Zdravko Zovko, was successful at his debut. His team defeated Cementos La Union Ribarroja 32:27 (14:16) in Koprivnica.

Good start

The Croatian champions started with a very aggressive and high speed handball. With the efforts of Bulath and Tatari, Podravka took significant lead at 7:3. But then the home team received two suspensions and the Spanish side took good advantage of it. They started to come closer and at the end of the first half they even managed to turn the result over. The Croatians lost concentration and the Spanish side ended the first half in their favour - 14:16 due to many goals scored by Tatjana Medved.

The Croatian coach was not worried about the bad result in the first half: “We were leading at the beginning, but we allowed Ribarroja to force their rhythm on us. In defence we played very naively, so now we have to change all this in second half,” Zovko commented in the break.

Wise tactics

And indeed, all this changed for the second half. Zovko first changed his wing players: Todorovska and Zebic out, Gace and Lovrak in. That was a wise move because the defence of Podravka became much stronger and both new players scored many goals from fast breaks. Gace also played very well in defence against the most dangerous Spanish player, Tatjana Medved. As a result, the home team took big advantage at 28:23. Podravka Vegeta held this margin of five goals all the way to the end for final result of the match – 32:27.

The decisive players in the first Podravka victory of the season were Anita Bulath with eight goals and Anita Gace with five goals scored. In the Spanish team Tatjana Medved scored eleven.

Zovko was satisfied after the match:

“We played much better in second half. It is true that we did not play the most beautiful handball in the world, but important thing is that we won first two points in our very first CL match this season. Congratulations to all my players and many thanks for big support from our great fans.”

TEXT: Ivan Ambros