The first phase was to create a team and fight for placement in the World Cup; in the second the goal was set - going to the European Championship 2020, reports Vijesti on March 20, 2018.
This was clearly emphasized by Ljubiša Tumbaković when the previous competitive cycle was completed, and he repeated that today in his first address to the media.
"The main goal is to qualify for the European Championships. How will we do it? I think that everything we have done so far is very good, that we have made progress. Now everything needs to be raised to a higher level - both the discipline and the engagement, and the fight, and desire... We need to be an even better team," said Tumbaković.
At the beginning of the second phase, for the friendly matches against Cyprus and Turkey, Tumbaković invited players who he had worked with for two years, and some new faces - Alexander Boljević and returnee Marko Bakić.
"Boljević will get a chance so that we can see if he can be a good asset to the team," said Tumbaković.
He announced that he would try to expand the circle of candidates for the first team, with the primary focus being to improve the existing system.
"This goes especially for the dates in May and early June, when we will have more time. The most important thing is that we define the team by September when we will have to enter the competition even more seriously than in the qualifications for World Cup. Our wish is to create a team that will respond best to the qualification requirements for the Euro and at the same time attack one of the best positions in the Nations League," said the Montenegrin coach, who repeated that he was not impressed with the new competition.
"The Nations League was very interesting at first because we had to fight teams with similar qualities for the big competition, but it's not like that. This is a pilot project, which is more important to Uefa than to us. From the 15 teams from League C, only one goes to the finals. The third-placed national teams in regular qualifiers can’t go to the playoffs now, but we will enter this competition with a sports motive. Why wouldn’t we, because against Romania we had a positive result in the qualifications for World Cup, and with Serbia, we can always compete."
From the beginning of the second phase and the first friendly matches, Montenegro will prepare for the competition.
"Since the first match against Greece two years ago, we had strong competitive ambitions, and we will see again. We are maximally motivated, we want concentration at training and games, and we had that in qualifications. If we were to do a competitive analysis of the previous cycle, my favorite was the match with Romania in Podgorica, and the match with Denmark was a real disappointment. We were not able to take on this match as a team, and this is something we have to consider in the future," said Tumbaković.
This article was translated from an article by A.R. on Vijesti.me: We will have sports motive in the League of Nations, we can compete with Serbia and Romania
