Croatian coach Nenad Sostaric has never had so many difficulties with gathering and choosing players as before this competition, because almost the entire team is not available to him due to injuries and corona viruses.
Namely, the injured duo Ivana Kapitanović and Ivana Dežić, on the list of those who had to cancel their preparations and performance due to the crown, there were six more Podravka Vegeta players, and one Koka.
- This has never happened in history, and I think that sport is in one specific situation, especially handball. We prepared ourselves as best we could within the limits we could. You know the situation; the first was with Ivana Kapitanović, who was severely injured and operated on, just like Ivana Dežić. The situation with Podravka’s players continued. And we practically live here from testing to testing. However, the girls work honestly, try their best and that has never been a problem. We will certainly do our best, regardless of the composition we are in, said Nenad Sostaric. We are now mostly looking at Hungary, which is actually a variant, an extended version of Ferencvaros, that is, 90 percent of the players who play or have played in Ferencvaros. And after that follows the Netherlands, which is the world champion. Compared to before, there are no important players, but they have a system in which it is known that players who work come out of their handball academy, always in the same principle and have a very high-quality team and their own way of playing. And the third team is Serbia, which in my opinion is not worse than these two, absolutely, because they have convincingly the two best midfielders. It is the national team that has the most experienced players of all the national teams in our group, but we are going from game to game and we will see what it will look like, „said the coach, adding that the national team wants and will do its best to pass the first round.
As it is known from before, Croatia will play its first round matches in Kolding. It will be a special championship after all, with the strictest epidemiological measures that an athlete can imagine. In short, in addition to the numerous tests that had to be done during the preparations, each national team will be tested immediately upon arrival in Denmark. Until the results of these tests are known, the players will have to stay in their rooms. Otherwise, all national teams are strictly forbidden to leave the hotel. After the matches, the players will immediately go to the hotel rooms from the halls without taking a shower. Each national team should have its own floor, where meals will be served, so that except on the field, it is not possible for players from different national teams to communicate with each other.
