When Montenegro and Slovenia lined up against each other for their Group A opener of the 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship on Friday night, some people would have taken a second look at the Slovenian bench where coach Dragan Adzic was dressed head to toe in the Slovenian colours.

But this was not a mistake.

The legendary Montenegro and Buducnost leader – with Olympic silver, European gold and Champions League titles brought back to Podgorica in a golden period during the 2010s – was really coaching against his former team.

And what a job he did, taking an unexpectedly large win (28:18) as his new side started Spain 2021 in the best possible way with a hard-fought victory, rotated bench and players back from injury.

“Absolutely,” says Adzic to ihf.info the day after when asked if he was glad the emotional clash against the side coached by his former captain Bojana Popovic was out of the way on the first day.

“But I'm really pleased with that match, it was our first match at this championship and I'm sure that Montenegro will beat Angola (in their next match) and will go a step further with each match. It was really a hard day for me for different reasons, but today is much more peaceful for me.”

While Slovenia goalkeeper Amra Pandzic rightly won the hummel Player of the Match award for her 14 saves (11 in the first half), which helped Slovenia go on a first half 8:0 scoring run, taking the same amount as a lead in the half-time break and seal the game, Adzic was happy with the overall performance from his team, but like any successful coach, wants – and expects – a lot more from his squad.

“I'm really happy for the energy the girls gave on the court throughout the 60 minutes,” he said. 

“Montenegro didn’t have all their players, maybe [having] some other players they could score and have a better scoring percentage, but in our team, our girls were in the mood for scoring because of their mental preparation and they were really motivated.

“But we can also make some improvements, especially in defence. We want to ensure that in our next matches against France and Angola that they score less goals (against us) because of our defence and not just because of our goalkeeper.”

When he took the job in April Adzic inherited a Slovenia squad which had finished the 2019 IHF Women’s World Championship in their worst-ever ranking of 19th place but with a mixture of global superstars, experienced leaders and exciting youth, he was in no doubt about the building blocks he had to work with and construct something memorable for the country which is one of three joint hosts of the Women’s EHF EURO 2022.

“I knew about Slovenian handball before I came to Slovenia because we have a really good connection and cooperation between Buducnost and RK Krim Mercator and I'm friends with (former Slovenia men’s and women’s national team coach) Tone Tiselj and (previous Slovenia women’s coach) Uros Bregar,” said Adzic who first won the EHF Champions League with Buducnost in 2012.

“When the President of the Slovenian Handball Federation called me [about the job], I saw on videos a Slovenian team with players on the highest level, from Ana (Gros) to the last girl in the national team. I'm here because of that and because I believe that we can improve our game and quality of each player.

“The first thing which we must put on highest [importance] is the winning mentality and that we show continuity with each championship.”

Any person involved with sports at the highest level tends to move around a lot due to the nature of either a playing or coaching career, but for Adzic, so inextricably linked to Montenegro, the move to Slovenia was quite easy and he is also learning about himself too.

“Slovenia is my second-best choice after Montenegro, I like everything in Slovenia,” he says with a smile. “There are two different handball cultures (in Montenegro and Slovenia), but I'm really happy for that, that the girls take my ideas, my handball philosophy and take it for themselves. 

“It's not a big difference between the Montenegro and Slovenia teams. I do many individual talks with players and that's my main thing, but I also respect their opinion, which they give to me.

“The most important thing with the Slovenian national team before me was offence, but now I am here, I want to create focus and a balance between the defence and attack.”

That balance will be crucial as Adzic and his side take on a France side which have any number of Olympic Games, European and World Championship medallists, but with that home EURO coming up next year, the coach is well aware of the need for competitive games if they are to showcase what Slovenian women’s handball can offer on home soil.

“We created a plan to play against teams like Norway, Croatia and now here, with Montenegro, France and Angola and then, we hope, also RHF (who Slovenia could face in the main round),” he explained. “Our plan was we play these matches in the lead up to our home championship and that we will have many experiences from these games.

“France are Olympic champions and that's why I also think they’re the best team at this World Championship,” he added. “I really like to play against France and I have good experience [against them] in the past. The main thing for me [against France] is that we do our best and make a step further in our improvement of the game. [We can see our level against them], that’s most important.

“I don’t know how far we can go here in Spain, but we will take every game at a time.”