The handball players of Buducnost will start the competition in the Champions League on Sunday, September 13, starting at 4 p.m. The rival is Podravka in Koprivnica, and coach Dragan Adžić is facing one of the biggest challenges in his career.
The experienced strategist, who won a gold medal at the European Championships and a silver medal at the Olympic Games with the national team, and two European champion titles with the Buducnost team, will try to choose a favorable result on the way to placement in the severely weakened squad, without 11 players of his team. the second phase of the competition, or the playoffs for placement in the final tournament of the elite competition.
- It would be difficult for us to be complete, to have done everything from July that we planned. I am convinced that the girls I have at my disposal will give their best. I am sure that they will invest the last atom of strength, and according to their character and way of thinking, they are a team that does not recognize impossible missions. For the handball players I lead, that does not exist, Buducnost coach Dragan Adzic emphasized before the start of the Champions League.
Milena Raičević, Jovanka Radičević, Tatjana Brnović, Ema Ramusović, Katarina Džaferović, Andrijana Popović, Jovana Ilić, Milena Vujisić, Itana Grbić and Nadja Kadović are not traveling to Koprivnica due to recovery from the coronavirus. Valerija Maslova will also miss the match due to a shoulder injury.
- Podravka is the favorite in the match that follows, due to everything that hit us. Already against CSKA from Moscow, we will be more complete, more concrete and better. We will slowly, from game to game, reach the level of form that Buducnost can have when it is complete and ready. The most important thing now is to pass the group stage and get the opportunity to fight to achieve the goal from the beginning of the season, which is to qualify for the final tournament of the elite competition, and then fight for the third European club title in the club’s history, „said Adzic.
The match between Podravka and Buducnost will be played on Sunday, September 13, starting at 4 p.m. In the group with the Buducnost team, in addition to Podravka, they are from Győr, Borussia, CSKA, Odense, Valcea and Brest.
The two first-placed teams will go directly to the quarterfinals, and the teams that will be in the positions of three, four, five and six will play in the eighth finals, will fight for a place in the final tournament.
Buducnost has a powerful team, capable of interfering in the fight for the title of European champion, but now the most important thing is to survive the difficult and turbulent start of the season in which the champion of Montenegro will be decimated.
