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MUNICH - Comments from Serbia head coach Antonio Gerona (ESP), line player Dragan Pechmalbec (SRB) and right wing Bodgan Radivojevic (SRB), Montenegro right wing Luka Radovic (MNE), Hungary head coach Chema Rodriguez (ESP) and right back Patrik Ligetvári (HUN), and Iceland centre back Gisli Kristjansson (ISL), right wing Sigvaldi Bjørn Gudjonsson (ISL) and left back Aron Pálmarsson at media calls on Saturday.
SERBIA
Antonio Gerona (ESP) – head coach
On the opening game against Iceland:
“We saw it again, as we are used to doing before going to sleep. All the staff together, just to discuss, to make some small clips and corrections that we are now working on individually with the players. Because from 11:00, I will say we just need to focus on the next game. There is no time to review all the mistakes that we did.
“We knew that it would be a difficult match against Iceland. Finally, we took one point. That means that we have everything still in our hands. It’s perhaps an opportunity that we missed, but OK, I think that we have to keep focus on the good things that we did almost all the match.”
On the positives of the first game and executing the planned tactics:
“The players were following the strategic plan that we decided to make. To play without a lot of speed, to put down a little bit the pace of the match, to give us the possibility to be always all the time on defence, to not let them be on their mood, with running, running and running. We succeeded on that but unfortunately in the last moments we missed, I will say, some more freshness.”
On the next match, versus Hungary:
“It’s a completely different game. Yesterday we put a lot of effort on defence. We have big players to play in defence, but I think that they are still bigger than us. They have an amazing team with players who are able to shoot from 11 metres. Not even from nine. From 11 metres.
“This is not the case for Iceland. Iceland are more situations, one-against-one. They have really big defence also. They have playmakers who are completely different. Three different playmakers who can completely change the face of the match in one moment.
“We prepared already, of course. We just need to make some adjustments with the things that we saw yesterday in the match against Montenegro and that’s it, and to go again.”
Dragan Pechmalbec (SRB) - line player
On the round 1 game:
“Now, with one day more, I think it’s a good point. We are alive and will play a final against Hungary tomorrow. We can be just a little bit disappointed because we played better than Iceland 55 minutes and in the two last minutes we made some mistakes, but now it's over. We need to think about the future; not about the past.”
On whether they executed everything they planned against Iceland:
“We were really ready for this. We played one tournament in Spain a few days ago. We made some mistake but we corrected all the mistakes we made almost. We need for sure to improve. We can play much better than we played yesterday. And I hope we'll do it again.”
On the preparation to face Hungary as he plays club handball in Hungary:
“I know them, so for me I need maybe less preparation because I know maybe half of the team. But now is special because the first game, we had I don’t know how many days to prepare for the game but now every game it’s one, one and a half days, so we need to be smart, to focus on the strengths and the weaknesses of Hungary, and we will see. We will be ready for sure.”
On the specific approach against Hungary:
“We are like, very over motivated. We have like, I feel in the group, everyone is like with full of motivation and we’ll play this game like a final because Hungary need these two points to go through and we need to go because of the draw of yesterday. We need also two points, so for us it’s to stay alive in this tournament.”
Bogdan Radivojevic (SRB) – right wing
On the opening game versus Iceland:
“We already spoke before the tournament that it doesn’t matter what happened every game. We should be happy or be sad the night directly after a game, of course, and to think about that game. But from the next day, we should concentrate on the next game because we have two more matches and we need to concentrate on them.”
On preparing to face Hungary:
“In the preparation games and in our trainings from December, we prepared on all three matches. We didn’t just prepare for Iceland because we knew that we will not have so much time between the games to prepare.
“So we prepared also almost everything for all three matches, but of course, there are some details on which we will need to focus today. We really need full focus from all the players and we need to play the game like yesterday so we will not have any problems, but of course we know that Hungary has really a lot of good players and we really need a crazy 60 minutes.”
On what is important for his team, in terms of their own game, against Hungary:
“It was not lucky that we won against Sweden, against Norway, against Slovenia, France and I don't know. So we showed that we can play with all the teams. And not just play, we can win against everyone. But also we showed that we can lose against everyone if we are not fully focused and fully concentrated on the opponent, and also especially we have to be concentrated on ourselves.
“We just need to also concentrate a lot on us on ourselves, on our game and on our defence. To be there on the court for every minute, every single minute from the beginning until the end.”
On Hungary as their opponents:
“I know a lot of players there. I played with a lot of them and it will be a nice match. They have a good fans also and I think, I really hope, that we will have a lot of fans in the arena tomorrow. So it’s going to be a really good game and I really hope that we will win.”
MONTENEGRO
Luka Radovic (MNE) – right wing
On the first match, against Hungary:
“It was a big damage for us because we lost that match for the one ball in the last one minutes.
“We need to turn for the next match against Iceland. We need to forget that match against Hungary fast, because we have a match tomorrow against Iceland. Iceland play very fast. We need to stop them in transition, and that’s it.”
On the positives against Hungary:
“In the first half we played, I think, very bad in defence, but in the second half it was very positive on both the sides, the attack and the defence. But I don't know, in the last five minutes, what happened with us. We need to forget that past.”
On Iceland goalkeeper Viktor Hallgrímsson and his strong game against Serbia:
“I know him very well because he playing in France. He’s such a good goalkeeper. He played the best match yesterday against Serbia. But we have a very good goalkeeper, [Nebojsa] Simic.
“We need to stop their middle back, Gisli [Kristjansson]. He’s one of the best players in the world, who plays one-against-one very good. And they have one of the best rights [backs], Ómar Ingi Magnusson. He’s very good. We need to stop them in defence and in transition.”
HUNGARY
Chema Rodriguez (ESP) – Hungary head coach
On the game against Montenegro:
“Like we expected, the first match always in all the tournaments is so difficult. It was like this. We made a lot of mistakes. Easy mistakes. Not normal mistake on this high level. But finally the good thing is we won the match, we have the two points and after this we can we can grow and we can think about the other matches.”
On whether Hungary executed all their planned tactics against Montenegro:
“All the matches are different. We won and that is important. After we have now two difficult matches in a row, with Iceland and with Serbia. They are amazing teams and now we need to do everything almost perfect to win against them, and we’re going to try.”
On the chance to book the main round spot in the next game:
“We always go match by match, because we are not one team that we can think more. Maybe Denmark, Norway, Spain, Croatia — these teams maybe can look more far but in our case it’s not like this. Our focus is trying to pass this group that for us is so difficult. And usually it’s one victory for us if we can pass to the next round.
“We are focused now on Serbia, to try to win this match. After, it doesn’t matter what has happened, we’re going to focus on Iceland. After, we will see if we are in the next round. And if after we’re still in the next round, we go to think about the next round.”
Patrik Ligetvári (HUN) — left back
On how he is feeling now the campaign has begun:
“I’m feeling really good. We knew that the first match is the most difficult always, in every tournament. But finally, we won this match. It was so difficult for us. But we are so happy because we won.”
On the positive parts of Hungary’s round 1 game:
“We were so good in defence, actually in the second part. And in the key moments we scored the important goals and we won this match.”
On what to improve before round 2:
“We had a lot of technical mistakes yesterday and we want to play much better in the next match against Serbia because we know that they have a really good team. And if we want to win against them, we need to put down more the technical mistakes.”
On the next opponents, Serbia:
“They have a really good team. We know a lot of players in the Serbian team and they know us as well. They have a really good defence with good goalkeepers. And we have to try to be faster in the fast break and score easy goals.”
ICELAND
Gisli Kristjansson (ISL) – centre back
On the last-second draw (27:27) with Serbia in the first match:
“It was an exciting finish. It was a tough game, it was a really physical game, but it was not a fast game. It’s a bit sad that we were in this position because we should have come away way better from half-time.
“We let them lead most of the second half with a lot of simple, foolish mistakes from our side. We can only blame ourselves for not leading higher in the first half with only technical faults and turnovers that we cannot allow ourselves to do.”
On the importance of getting a point in the first match:
“That point was extremely important for the ongoing tournament. Of course, it’s strong to not lose from that position, we showed great character.”
On the upcoming opponents, Montenegro:
“We will for sure need a better performance. They are also very strong. I don’t expect a whole different game: they will also be very physical, so we will need to be a little bit cooler.”
Sigvaldi Bjørn Gudjonsson (ISL) – right wing
On scoring the buzzer-beating equaliser against Serbia (27:27):
“When there was one minute left, we all thought it was done. But it happened so fast. We got this goal and then we tried everything to steal the ball. A handball match finishes after 60 minutes and you can score two goals very, very fast.”
On the team’s performance in the opening match:
“It was not good enough. We didn’t play good enough in attack, but we played very well in defence, especially in the first half. But we need to look at something in our attack. We didn’t have the flow that we supposed to have. We need to get a little bit more passes in our attack, so that is something we are looking at and trying to fix for the next game.”
On playing against Montenegro:
“We have a lot of players who are good in one-on-one and they will try to make it tight. So, we need to spread them apart and make some space for our one-on-one players. It will be a similar game, but we want to get the tempo up, maybe their team will try to slow down, we will see.”
On learnings from the Serbia game going into the Montenegro game:
“We showed a lot of character to come back and get that point. We were three goals behind when it was like one-and-a-half-minute left, so it’s good that we are fighting until the end and show some character.
“The spirit in the team is where it should be. That is something that we need to take with us, that we fight until the end.”
Aron Pálmarsson (ISL) – left back
On the finish of the match against Serbia:
“It was just an amazing comeback that we did there. Happy with that, but not happy with how played, especially in attack.”
On Serbia losing the ball to enable Iceland to score the late equaliser:
“You know, when there is so much on the line and emotions take over, then sometimes quality doesn’t matter, and people do strange things. We were fortunate that it happened to us. The only message we had, was: try to win the ball. That happened, they made a mistake, we took advantage, and fortunately for us it went our way.”
On Iceland’s performance in the first match:
“We did a lot of technical faults and a lot of bad shots. I don’t know what it was, but we were just not that cocky in our offence, it just wasn’t there.”
TEXT: EHF / Courtney Gahan
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