eurohandball.com: How has the season been so far for your side?
Eduarda Amorim Taleska: As you probably have seen already, we won our first two games in the DELO EHF Champions League, against last season’s finalists, Brest Bretagne Handball, and another powerhouse, in CSM Bucuresti. For the last game, against CSM, we were thoroughly motivated because we lost the previous match, 30:31, against Lada in the Russian league, therefore we were determined to take the court and win, to prove ourselves that we are a good team.
And we did exactly that, with a confident performance, we were leading by 12 goals in the second half. Like I have told you, the potential is there, we just need to tweak some things, we need to adapt our style and we will probably be better.
eurohandball.com: Are Rostov one of the favourites to win the trophy this season?
Eduarda Amorim Taleska: This is a difficult question and it involves a difficult answer. Let’s just say that we have potential to become a good team, but the answer right now would be no. We are building towards that, I think we have done a very good job up until this point, but we need more and this good start of the season can help a lot, with two wins in the first two games. Just building up the confidence in ourselves. A DELO EHF FINAL4 berth? Sure, it is achievable.
eurohandball.com: Could the defence, which your coach Per Johansson touted to be the best in women’s handball, can be your edge?
Eduarda Amorim Taleska: I mean, sure. I do not think Per has exaggerated at all when he said this, because we have plenty of experience, plenty of talent at our disposal and the chemistry is very good between ourselves. We have different systems which we are trying to master, but all in all we can be the best or at least rival with the best teams in the world. Adding some good games from our goalkeepers, which we got in the two matches against Brest and CSM Bucuresti, could help achieve that objective.