Rendezvous with history again tonight (19:30, ERT3) h Men’s National Polo Teamas he faces her Croatian at quarter-finals of the European Championship.
The band of Thodoris Vlachos is called upon to defeat the host of the event and European title holder, putting behind her mediocre performances in most games of the tournament, in order to enter the medal zone and claim a place on the podium for the first time in the history of the event.
“We don’t wait 24 hours to fix things. We’re either ready or we’re not. We have to be much more focused, more ready and more careful in defense mainly and with a little luck to win“, said the federal coach, who is not afraid of the headquarters and… what it can bring to the Croatians. “People don’t score goals, sometimes they put pressure on the hosts. We have to stay very calm and play very good defense. If we keep the score low we have a very high chance of getting what we want, but if we score easy goals and effortlessly, I think then the other team will have the upper hand psychologically».
Ivica Tučak’s team after the failure at the World Cup, where they missed out on the quarter-finals, is in a stage of renewal, after the departure of several of its stars, but the younger generation does not have the same talent, nor similar personalities. The Croatians have not impressed so far in the European Championship. Their opener win over Spain on penalties (14-12) and relatively easy win over France (12-7) gave them direct qualification to the last eight, but defeat to Montenegro on penalties (15-13) left them second in the group and sent them on the way of the Greek team.
The National, which will compete in the evening without Giorgos Dervisis (he was sent off in yesterday’s match against the Netherlands), he has to overcome one more poor tradition as they have never beaten Croatia at European Championship level, counting four draws and eight defeats, most by margins. In total, the two teams have faced each other in 61 matches, with the representative group counting 11 victories and “Croatia” 41.
It should be noted that whichever team passes will face the winner of the big derby of the quarter-finals, between Hungary and Serbia, in the semi-final on Sunday (14/1).
The schedule of the quarter-finals at the European Championship in Zagreb:
16:00 Hungary-Serbia
17:30 Spain-Romania
19:30 Croatia-GREECE
21:15 Italy-Montenegro
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