Friendly matches between the national teams of Russia and Belarus will be held 11 and 12 March. The wards of Velimir Petkovich will start to prepare for the matches in Novogorsk 6 March. As the HFR official website informs, 18 players are called to the team. Viktor Kireev, whose daughter was born 19 February, will have an opportunity to stay with his family and will join the national team 9 March.
— I congratulated Viktor with the addition to his family, and we’ll have a dinner together in couple of days in Berlin. Of course, we allowed him to go home. But Kireev will fly to Minsk with everyone, — Petkovic clarified.
The team of Russia:
goalkeepers — Artem Grushko (Chekhovskie medvedi), Denis Zabolotin (Meshkov Brest, Belarus), Viktor Kireev (Berlin, Germany);
left wings — Egor Kochura, Nikita Iltinsky (both from Victor);
pivots — Pavel Andreev (Meshkov Brest, Belarus), Radomir Vrachevich (Victor), Aleksandr Ermakov (Chekhovskie medvedi);
right wings — Dmitriy Kornev (Chekhovskie medvedi), Daniil Shishkarev (CSKA);
left backs — Mikhail Vinogradov (Bregenz, Austria), Aleksandr Grebenkin (Victor), Evgeniy Dzemin (Chekhovskie medvedi);
playmakers — Inal Aflitulin (Victor), Dmitriy Zhitnikov (Visla, Poland);
right backs — Sergey Ivanov, Dmitriy Kiselev (both from CSKA), Aleksandr Kotov (Chekhovskie medvedi).
— We called 18 players to the training camp, so that everyone could get enough amount of playing time in the upcoming matches in Minsk. We can say, that taking into account several losses, it’s our strongest squad. We will analyze our January matches, especially counterattacks and quick play. And if we defended well on the scheme 6-0 earlier, now we will practice option 5-1. We will apply it in Minsk. We have known each other for a long time and we have good relations with the head coach of the Belarusian Yury Shevtsov. I saw how upset he was after two losses in Moscow and how seriously he was determined to take a revenge. As far as I know, Belarusians will call all their strongest handball players, including legionaiers, who were missing in January. My goal for the matches in Minsk is to play in defense 5-1 and make a quick return to defense. But just like any coach, I always want to win. So, we are looking forward to exciting games, — the head coach of the Russian national team Velimir Petkovic said.
The team of Russia will fly to Minsk 9 March, where the matches with the Belarusian national team will be held 11-12 Match. Live broadcasts will be avaliable on the portal handballtv.ru.
Photo: rushandball.ru
