Hungarians not fazed by travel trauma.
Hungary face Belarus in last group match
Hungary qualified to the EHF EURO 2012 in the fifth round and will play against Belarus in their last group match. ehf-euro.com spoke with assistant coach Beáta Siti before Sunday's clash.
ehf-euro.com: Are you confident while waiting for your last match after your team has already qualified to EHF EURO?
Beáta Siti: Theoretically yes, because we don't have any pressure on our shoulders. Of course we have to concentrate despite this. The club season is over and sometimes it’s really hard to focus on the national team matches. I hope the girls would like to say goodbye to the Hungarian public with a nice performance.
ehf-euro.com: We heard that you had some very difficult situations when arriving in Azerbaijan. What happened?
Beáta Siti: The Turkish airline was on strike, so we had to wait 8-9 hours at the airport. We finally arrived at the hotel at 5 am on the day of the match. It was not an optimal situation at all...
ehf-euro.com: How was the match after this trauma?
Beáta Siti: We made some serious mistakes, but at least we are happy that nobody was injured in the match. We also had some very nice moments, but we made 14 technical fouls only in the first half and that is really too many. We also tried to use as many of our players as we could.
ehf-euro.com: Could you have a rest after this tiring trip?
Beáta Siti: Our original plan was that, if we qualified for the EHF EURO we would have some harder training sessions on Friday and Saturday.
We practiced defence and attacking in power play on Friday morning, but then we gave some free time to the girls, so I’m sure they can recuperate.
ehf-euro.com: How many injured players do you have?
Beáta Siti: Zácsik has problems with her shoulder again, Szamoránsky was operated on one week ago, and we cannot expect to have Vérten. Bulath has an ankle injury, but I think she can play on Sunday. Line-player Valéria Szabó will join us, so she can be a great help to Anita Cifra.
ehf-euro.com: Do you think Belarus is stronger than Azerbaijan?
Beáta Siti: Yes, absolutely. We’re very lucky that we had to play against Azerbaijan in the previous round, as they are not too strong.
Belarus has a very good left handed shooter called Yankovskaya, who scored many goals against us in the first match. We know the Ferencváros goalkeeper, Abramovic, well, but of course she also knows us well! So I guess that Belarus represents a much higher level.
The draw for EHF EURO 2012 is scheduled for 6 June 2012 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. You can follow the draw live on Wednesday at 2 pm CET on: ehf-euro.com/NED2012/
Further Information
Find more information on the Women's EHF EURO 2012 Qualification HERE.
View more detailed information on the event on the Official EHF EURO 2012 Website.
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TEXT:
handball.hu (Ildikó Balogh)