Experienced Serbian expert Dragan Djukic, he succeeded successfully in 2017. With Makabi won the Israeli CUP, the Vicesampioni Israel and the participants of the group stage of the EHF CUP. With the Montenegrin national team he achieved great success but no one believed him, he was placed on the European Championship in Croatia, while he was second with the new club Ordohei from Romania on half-season.
1. Half-season ended, how satisfied are you with the results and plans for the future?
– Since we had nine new players in the team, and that a complete expert staff has been changed, it must be satisfied with the results achieved (the second and third places), although you know it yourself – it can always be better! The ambitions of the club I am leading are to skip this first stage (1/4 finals of the playoffs) in this season, which in the last three seasons was insurmountable and we will be relegated to Europe in the coming season. However, it will not be so easy because the Romanian league in this season is a competition of very equal teams with a large number of foreign players and big investments and will be very interesting to the very end.
2. There will be a European Championship in Croatia. What is the preparation plan and what are the expectations in that period?
– One great competition is at the door, and most of the selections have already begun with preparations. Team ambitions and expectations of handball lovers from the countries where they come from are high, and I could all here remind everyone of the great thoughts of Julius Irving – a popular Dr. Jesse, one of the greatest NBA players of all time: „To become big you have to win games that you should not have won.“ In other words, big competitions create big teams, and big games create big players …
Our final preparations start on January 2, and already on the 3rd we are going to Croatia where a friendly match with the host is expected. It will be an excellent opportunity for the team to feel the atmosphere of a big competition before his official start, followed by the final „glaze“ in Podgorica and going to Zagreb on January 11th.
3. Your expectations at the upcoming European Championship with Montenegro?
– The reality is that we are offenders in our group, Germany is the official champion of Europe, Slovenia is the winner of the bronze medal from the last year’s championship in France, and Macedonia is super-sized, high quality and will have significant support … but that we were based on realities we would not be at championship of Europe! One thing is certain, Montenegro through the qualifications presented itself as a team able to deal with every rival, and comes to Croatia to show that this was not a coincidence, and will not retreat to anyone, no matter how its opponent was called. Passing into the second round has so far always represented an „impossible mission“, but as long as there is a chance there is hope!
4. In general about the European championship, favorites, surprises?
– The bars on the phrase we hear before every big competition will be: „the most uncertain yet“, but if we look a little better on the list of participants, it will be clear that there is almost no weak team. „Usual“ favorites: Denmark, Spain, France and the host of Croatia, we certainly have to add the superstars of Norvezane, the upcoming Sweden, and excellent Slovenia, with the winners of Europe, we have reached 50% of the participants!
If we add teams that can surprise from „shadow“ like Hungary with Vranjes, Macedonia with Gonzalez, better Czechs with Cuba and Filip on the bench and always unpredictable teams like Serbia and Iceland, we come to the conclusion that we are really interested in championship .
5. Message to all colleagues for the upcoming holidays?
It is most important to preserve oneself, because handball needs more than ever, initiative, fresh ideas, new faces. That at least a fraction of the time in which they care for their teams devoted to themselves, their own improvement, health and their closest neighbors without help would never succeed. Happy holidays and lots of success!
