A fit 55 year old

17 seems to be the lucky number for the one dominant team in Croatian women’s handball. Last season Podravka became both national champion and cup winner for the 17th time in 18 years.

That double success suited perfectly for the 55th anniversary of the club.

On home soil they are a class of their own, and in international competitions Podravka is still the only club from Ex-Yugoslavia to win the EHF Women’s Champions League title in 1996.

That is long ago and times have changed in Croatia. Last year the squad underwent a complete transformation. And before the upcoming season the team was changed again. But only a little in comparison to 2009.

But not only players were coming and going, also the coach was changed. Zdravko Zovko, who had worked for Podravka for three years, was replaced by Neven Hrupec.

Also in the management changes were undertaken. Krunoslav Besvir is the new club President and Bozica Palcic the new manager.

Coach Hrupec wants to be patient with his team, but is still reaching out for the EHF Women’s Champions League Main Round: "In this season Podravka has a relatively new team and we will try to be well prepared for the upcoming CL matches. Our opponents Krim and Györ are well known and the matches will certainly be interesting. Those teams are the group favourites, but we prepare match by match and try to gain a large number of points."

The biggest loss to his team is Andrea Penezic who went to Krim. Ironically that means that she will meet her old team twice in the EHF Women’s Champions League.

But despite those changes team captain Miranda Tatari is quite optimistic: "Our primary goal is to stay in European competitions after the first phase of the EHF Women’s Champions League. It will be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Györ and Krim are great teams worthy of respect. Still I believe we can play on an equal level with such high quality opponents. If possible, we want to go on to the Main Round, but I guess it would be satisfactory for us to continue in the Cup Winner’s Cup."

Manager Bozica Palcic shares those ambitions: "The next EHF Women’s Champions League season will be very interesting and unpredictable because most of the teams are equal in quality. There are great European teams in our group, so it will be very difficult. But we’ll try hard."

Top scorer Svitlana Pasicnik is taking an overview on the complete competition: "Our goal is to proceed to the Main Round, regardless of our strong opponents. Györ is reinforcement this season; they have an excellent team with two experienced goalkeepers. Krim play very well in the CL each year, and have stepped up with our former player Andrea Penezić. It will be an interesting season. Most teams have new players, Viborg for instance had to replace Lunde and Popović but they’re still strong. Budućnost has a very good team thanks to Popović; Hypo seems to have weakened somewhat this season. Larvik can count on a brilliant team, same as Valcea, but also Leipzig, Toulon and Itxako have great opportunities. I look forward to the beginning of the EHF Women’s Champions League to enjoy top handball."

Key facts

Newcomers: Nikica Pusic (from Lokomotiva Zagreb), Vesna Milanovic Litre (from Lokomotiva Zagreb), Sandra Nikcevic (from Arena Pula)

Left the club: Andrea Penezic (to Krim Ljubljana), Andrea Seric (to Lokomotiva Zagreb)

Coach: Neven Hrupec (CRO, since 2010, successor of Zdravko Zovko)

Find more information here.