On Wednesday in Portugal, the Montenegrin women’s handball team eliminated any uncertainties regarding their journey to the World Cup, but maintaining a serious attitude has always been the hallmark of the “lionesses”.

After a decisive 12-goal victory (31:19), no one on Suzana Lazović’s team is willing to let their guard down before the rematch, scheduled for Saturday at 18:00 in the “Bemax Arena”.

Promotion is highly anticipated, as Montenegro aims to secure its place in the global competition emphatically.

“We performed excellently in Portugal and dictated the pace of the game, despite not training with a full squad prior. We executed everything we discussed, and I’m very proud of that. The energy was fantastic; we did what needed to be done, but this doesn’t guarantee an easy match at home. The responsibility is even greater, so I’m confident that each player will deliver even more than in Portugal to uphold our status as favorites,” stated the young Jelena Vukčević, who emphasized:

“The audience has always been our greatest support, and I hope the arena will be packed to capacity, creating an incredible atmosphere that propels us to another victory,” said the right-back from Buducnost.

Dijana Mugoša pointed out that the journey is far from over.

“Only the ‘first half’ is complete. We aim to maintain, if not amplify, our intensity since we are playing at home. While our performance in Portugal was strong, there’s always room for improvement. We need to minimize the technical errors we made in the first half of the previous match, but we have many younger players whom we older ones are here to support. We want them to feel confident, enjoy their freedom and creativity, and achieve great things together,” Mugoša commented.

The victory in the first match was impressive.

“Did we expect a 12-goal win? Yes and no. We aimed to give our best, so whatever the outcome, we would have been satisfied. As it turned out, that was enough for a 12-goal lead. We’ll see what happens in the second leg. We’re hoping for a similar result,” Mugoša shared, displaying her optimism.

Montenegro is advised to approach the second leg as if the first match never took place – this is the sentiment from pivot Andrijana Tatar:

“We won’t let the result of the first match distract us; we want to tackle the second leg with utter responsibility. We anticipate an even better performance than in Portugal. We utilized the time between matches to address the mistakes we made previously, and we know there’s always room for improvement. It’s crucial that the new generation begins this cycle with a commanding victory, giving us a boost. We demonstrated that, even without several players from the last European Championship, we can perform exceptionally well,” Andrijana Tatar concluded.

In the second leg, Montenegro will be without Đurđina Jauković, who sustained an injury during the first match.