30.11.2007, 09:35
Vori and Sola optimistic about Main Round

Zagreb was drawn together with Portland, Flensburg and Hamburg. The Croatians are not frightened from the group.

Vori and Sola optimistic about Main Round

Croatia Osiguranje-Zagreb will play in Group 3 of the Main Round against CL finalist Flensburg, CL semi-finalist Portland San Antonio and Cup Winners’ Cup winner Hamburg. Nobody in Croatia is really happy about this outcome of the draw, but there are no signs of fear. The players are calm and self-confident.

Winding Road to the Main Round

In the preparation period and in the first half of the season, Zagreb had many problems: injuries, new coach and building a new team. The squad includes the players from the last season in Zagreb and new key figures such as Kiril Lazarov, Igor Vori and Mirza Dzomba. These players simply needed an adaptation period. The Croats had many ups and downs in their team play and in their results too.

New challenge

Despite all the difficulties, Zagreb managed to qualify for the Main Round and now they face an even bigger challenge in Group 3. Nevertheless, this mixture of young talents and some of the best handball players of the world can not be underestimated. Zagreb are satisfied now that they reached their main goal and they can prepare without tension and pressure.

Advantage of not being favourites

Former player of Barcelona, Igor Vori, who has a great CL-experience. He knows very well how difficult Group 3 will be:

“As I said, there are no easy teams in the CL. But this time, maybe we could have more luck because for sure we have the strongest group of all.”

But the fact that Croatian have tough task in front of them, did not discourage them a bit. It has to be said that there are plenty of time left until February, and most important thing is that coach of Zagreb and Croatian NT Lino Cervar will gather majority of Zagrebs players in Croatian NT so they will also use this time to get use to each other even more.

Igor Vori also knows the main advantage of the Croatian side: “Our advantage is that we are not the favourites and everything we win in the Main Round will be a success.”

Vlado Sola, one of the best goalkeepers in the world, agrees: “All these teams have more chance against us, but this is good. We play much better against favourites, because we can play without any pressure than.”

Sola will also meet some friends: “It will be very interesting and exciting to play against our national team mates, Balic, Dominikovic and Matosevic from Portland and Lackovic from Flensburg.”

TEXT: Ivan Ambros