Marina Rajcic: Bringing the Lionesses’ fighting spirit to the EHF EURO

A mixture of young stars will play alongside a few more experienced heads. One of them is goalkeeper Marina Rajcic. While the 31-year-old is tasked with translating some of her rich experience to her younger teammates, she says, Montenegro's passionate way of playing handball will never change, no matter who wears the red shirt.

"We want to win everything that we won before and even more. And of course, they are really motivated and it's easy to work with the team and it's easy to motivate them, because we always want success. We don't come at the European championships just to go through the group, we come to win something and this is our goal again, it's also easy to be motivated when you have goals like this," says Rajcic.

Armelle Attingré, Marta Batinovic and Rajcic form one of the best goalkeeping trios at the EHF EURO 2024 and it is fair to say that the experienced shot stoppers are Montenegro's backbone.

"I can say that we are a really good trio and it doesn't matter in this moment who is in goal. It's just important that we make saves and that we can help the girls and every game will be easier if we do that,” Rajcic says.

“When we are good, then we have some special energy that we give to our team and then, they have even more self-confidence. I think the core of the energy and the winning spirit comes from the goalkeeper and then passes to the other players."

However, the Montenegrins have a difficult task in Debrecen as the London 2012 Olympic Games silver medallists are placed in group B alongside their neighbours Serbia, the tricky Czechia and last but not least, Romania's extremely young squad.

"It will not be easy because today every team plays a good level of handball and you don't have weak teams like you maybe had before. Every team is strong and everyone can surprise anyone and if you are not ready enough, there can be surprises.

“Honestly, I think in our group, every team is close in terms of quality and we all have equal chances. With that said, we really need to fight if we want to go to the main round and almost each match is a derby in this tournament," analyses Rajcic.

Montenegro are playing Serbia in the opening match in group B and when quizzed about what sets them apart from the other countries across the Balkans, given they are one of the least populated countries, but with the richest history in women's handball over the recent years at least, Rajcic reveals the secret.

"We truly fight if we want to be part of the national team and that's what it takes also if we want to succeed in life, in general. You really need to be motivated and we are fighters too. We never give up. It doesn't matter if we have a bad day, we never give up. In the end, I can say definitely say that our team is the strongest one in terms of mentality, for sure. And I think that we play with our hearts on the sleeve. Every game we play with our hearts and I can't say that every other every national team is like that."

Marina Rajcic and the newly-appointed head coach, Suzana Lazovic were together on the court for most of their national team's careers and now, the latter is tasked with leading some of her teammates at the European championship in Debrecen, which will be her first major tournament at the Montenegrin helm.

"It's new, but I already worked with my roommates before, I did the same with Bojana Popovic (Lazovic's predecessor). We all have the same goal and the same goes with Suzana. She's young, but she's really motivated, and she already has experience of coaching teams,” Rajcic says.

“Also, she lived in Montenegro, she played in Montenegro and she already knows what we need. We just need to adjust a little bit to each other and we have the same goal. For us, it doesn't matter who is on the bench as head coach as we all have the same goal. This is important and when you have the same goal, then it is easier for everyone."

Rajcic spent a season with Siófok KC in Hungary during her career and she expects a decent atmosphere at the matches in the Fönix Arena, where she also expects to see a lot of Montenegrins in the stands, starting from her family members as the passionate Montenegrins are getting ready to conquer Debrecen.

"First, our family and then all the others and when we have all of them next to us, we are more powerful," ends Rajcic

Photos © EHF/kolektiff