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Podravka's chance to gain experience

Larvik are one of the title contenders and they want to show it in today's match

The Norvegians are 2011 champions and last year's runners-up in the Champions League. The quality of their players and their ambition are making them one of the top favorites for the title. Coach Gjekstad has once again a really good team to whom he has added several talented juniors who will gain experience by playing in this prestigious competition. Their game is based, as is the case with most Scandinavian teams, on playing fast and keeping a high game tempo, but this team has almost perfected completely this game style. A solid and agile 6-0 defense lead by a practically unbeatable veteran Leganger are a guarantee that no European team will easily score against them. Along with the solid defense, their main weapon is a great counterattack which provides them with numerous easy goals which the team uses to boost their confidence and break the opponent. Regardless the score, they always stick to their game and wait for a bad period in their opponents' game because even 5 minutes are enough for them to break away and win the game. They have won the national league and cup several times and they've been playing an important role in the Champions League for a while now. Most of their players are members of the national team which has dominated the women's game for years and that speaks volumes about their strength and quality.  Today, their goal is to win. They consider nothing else even when they play against teams that are much better than Podravka. Their tactics is to play one match at a time in order to maintain their concentration and prepare for the Croatian champions.

Whether the Croatian champions are up to this kind of challenge, it's very hard to say. Podravka has undergone a number of changes in all departments. The most important ones are those which concern the team and those changes have been the most dramatic ones. First, Goran Mrdjen became the team's coach, taking former first coach Hrupec's place. This was followed by a number of changes in the team. All the last year's key players left the club. The absence of captain Tatari and Serb Damnjanovic will be especially hard to make up for. In addition, Horvat, Jelcic, Gace, Pusic-Koroljevic, Zana Covic and Zderic have also left the club. Their replacements are mainly young and at this level inexperienced players like Vukojevic, Vidak, Poljak, Havic and Nemaskalo. The most important signings are Zivkovic and Trifunovic, former members of Buducnost from Podgorica, and Havic, who had previously played for Podravka, but it remains to be seen whether these players can compete at the highest level against the best teams in Europe. Podravka have already played some friendly tournaments at a higher level and the Regional League where they were easily defeated by their arch rival Lokomotiva. If their performance and results are anything to go by, their plan to reach the second round or finish third in the group and continue to play in the Cup Winners' Cup seems quite unrealistic. They weren't able to reach the second round during the past four seasons when they had more quality players than now. Their last match, a defeat against Krim with a -16 goal difference, shattered their confidence, but according to coach Mrdjen, it's all a part of a process during which they'll gain experience and learn a lot.

Last year's Champions League finalists are starting this season determined to go all the way. Norwegian national team wrapped in a club. Scandinavian style of handball is a style in which there is no mercy and teams grind their opponents for 60 minutes. They have been playing together for a long time and they know each other well. Do we need to say more in the favor of the home team? On the other hand, Podravka are not even a shadow of the team they used to be and even that Podravka would have struggled to lose by less than eight goals in Norway. Girls playing for Podravka are either from younger selections (Dragisic, Kapitanovic, Covic) or are from teams that had no significant role in Croatian league, yet alone some bigger competition (Vukojevic and Vidak from Zelina, Havic from Zamet, Nemaskalo from Sesvete). Only Trifunovic and Zivkovic played in better clubs, but there they were only fringe players, which led to them leaving those clubs. Podravka opened the Regional league with a convincing defeat against average Lokomotiva (-6), a team they used to beat with ease, then they took a point against decimated Buducnost that came to Koprivnica with only half of their team and before they went to Norway they were completely outplayed against Krim (-16). That same Krim lost last year in Champions League semi-finals 27-19 against Larvikat at home. That is not a good sign for young and inexperienced Podravka team in their first Champions League match this season. It will help to convince you if we say that young Andrea Covic (one of the more important defensive players and the only substitution for Vesna Milanovic-Litre) stayed in Koprivnica due to knee injury and the whole expedition had troubles on their trip and the trip lasted much longer than expect, which caused much nervousness inside the team.