Oleg Botenko's team landed in Vilnius two hours ago ahead of tomorrow's European Championship qualifiers, but they are not yet allowed to enter the passport crossing and the players and staff are stuck at the airport • The Israeli embassy is trying to help
The Israeli handball team landed about two hours ago in Vilnius, ahead of tomorrow's game in the European Championship qualifiers, but it is not yet allowed to enter the passport crossing and the players and staff are stuck at the airport.
According to local authorities, the Lithuanian association did not regulate the required entry permits.
The Israeli embassy in Lithuania was immediately involved, in an attempt to find a solution and is now trying to take care of the players and the food and drink team.
This is a game of great importance in the competition for third place at home, from which 4 of the 8 teams with the best ranking among the qualifiers will qualify for the European Championships.
Coaches Oleg Botenko and Assaf Levy determined the squad for the game: The goalkeepers are Dan Tepper (Sharbor, France) and Moshiko Elimelech (Hapoel Kiryat Ono).
Corners - left: Oz Hammami (Hapoel Rishon LeZion) and Gil Pomerantz (AS Ramat Hasharon).
Right: Tal Hershkovitz (Hapoel Rishon LeZion) and Shlomi Zeitler (aka Ness Ziona). Links - left: Adir Cohen (Winterthur Switzerland), Ram Turknitz (Hapoel Ashdod) and Lior Gorman (Sharbor, France). Right - Yirmi Sidi ( Maccabi Rishon LeZion, Daniel Musindi (Erlangen, Germany), Amit Gal (Hapoel Kiryat Ono).
Centers - Yoav Lambroso (Limoges, France) and Eden Ginji (AS Ramat Hasharon).
Tomer Bodenheimer and Yahav Shamir will also join the trip, continuing from Lithuania directly to Switzerland after the game.
Now, the goal is to put the events of the last week behind, and get first points against the Lithuanians (who have lost so far - 36:20 in Iceland, and 34:26 against Portugal), and also to forget the memories of the last meeting in Lithuania in 2018 and ended in a scorching 36 loss : 20.
National coach Oleg Botenko said before take-off: "It was a difficult week, where every day he felt you were opening the morning and taking a step forward, and ending the day with a step back - and that relates mainly to the matter of mental preparation. The cancellation of games against Lithuania and Iceland hurt us. We go to the game in Lithuania after a longer preparation of all the players together, and without a load of 3 games in 5 days - which is the optimistic side.
We expected to go out to this meeting after a home win, which morally gives an advantage, but we are faced with the task.
A very difficult game awaits us.
Lithuania is a quality team, with a significant physical size.
They have a very high back line.
We will have to find a style of play accordingly.
We managed to prepare a few things, and we will look for what will work in front of their defense.
"There is nothing to take from the same game that was 3 years ago in Lithuania, but to come with will and intentions and make a difference there."
