Croatia
The first tournament is scheduled for May 7 to 9 in Zadar, and in group A there are also the Netherlands and Sweden. The second tournament will be played a week later in Apeldoorn, from 14-16. May. The champion of the group acquires the right to qualify directly for the European Championship, and this possibility also exists for the five best runners-up from seven groups, with Spain and Northern Macedonia already winning the European Championship.
The Croatian national team has managed to qualify for the European Championships three times so far, and this generation, now led by coach Emanuela Zanini, would definitely like to enter the circle of the 24 best selections of the Old Continent. Unfortunately, coach Zanini will not be able to be with his team until Thursday, because as the coach of Zagreb’s Mladost, he will play the last game of the playoff finals for the Croatian champion on Wednesday, so his first assistant Tomislav Ćošković and the rest of the professional staff will lead the training.
Head coach Emanuele Zanini will say before the start of the preparations:
„Three things are very important to me. Firstly, to gather in Zadar in the strongest lineup, and that all players are healthy, without injuries and especially without problems with Covid 19. Secondly, to achieve at least the level of form we had in 2019 when we were great carried in the Europa League with the Netherlands, Spain and Estonia. And third, we want to do our best through these two qualifying tournaments and qualify for the European Championships, regardless of the strength of the rivals, the Netherlands and Sweden.“
His optimism is shared by the captain of the national team, experienced game organizer Tsimfei Zhukuoski, who says:
„I hope that the complete preparations and qualifying matches will take place and that there will be no problems because of Covid 19 and that we will all be healthy and ready. The season has only recently ended for all of us, so I believe that we will come ready for the preparations, in the strongest lineup. In the group, the Swedes are a little unknown to us, but we will certainly scout them well and never underestimate them, but fight for every point because in the end, it can be crucial for passing to the European Championships. We know the Dutch much better, we have already met them, and we have had positive results. They are a much stronger team on paper than us, they are the favorites of the group if they appear in the strongest team, and I see no reason why that should not be the case, but we are going against them as bravely as possible, to win, and I believe we can go to the European Championships. That’s what we all want, and all concentration will be focused on just that.“
List of players for the European Championship qualifiers:
Setter: Petar Visić, Bernard Bakonji, Tsimafei Zhukouski
Opposite: Leo Andrić, Ivan Raić
Outside spiker: Marko Sedlaček, Filip Šestan, Tino Hanžić, Ivan Zeljković, Marino Marelić
Middle blockers: Ivan Mihalj, Sandro Dukić, Kruno Nikačević, Tomislav Mitrašinović
Libero: Sven Šarčević, Hrvoje Pervan
