Blagotinsek describes his first and last season at Göppingen as a roller-coaster ride, “We had so many ups and downs. In the European League we played really strong and made a really great job, but in German league, we are below expectations and have many problems. But now we are at the EHF Finals, which is highly important for the players, the club and everybody at Göppingen.” In the Bundesliga, Frisch Auf only is in 14th position of 18 teams, on the other hand, they are the only EHF Finals participant which won all their knock-out matches in the Last 16 and quarter-finals having finished second in a tough group and after eliminating former EHF Cup winners TBV Lemgo already in qualification.
Having in mind that Granollers eliminated EHF Finals host SG Flensburg-Handewitt, Blagotinsek is aware of a high hurdle to be jumped: “A final tournament is always tricky to play, I know it from playing at Veszprém. Sometimes the underdog wins the trophy, you never know what happens in this format. It is all about the daily form and the x-factor. At this stage of the competition, there is definitely no weak team anymore. But it is our advantage that we had two weeks without any domestic match and could concentrate and focus only on Granollers. We will fight to win the semi and to win the trophy, but you never know.”
In general, Blagotinsek is happy to face Granollers, as Göppingen have duelled many times with Berlin in the Bundesliga and had locked horns with Montpellier already in the group stage of the European League.
Thanks to Blagotinsek, Göppingen (alongside Füchse Berlin) have the best defence of the competitors with an average of 27.4 conceded goals. “But it is not about me, I am not the one to tell the others what they have to do. I always play for the team’s success, and we have guys like Josip Sarac and Kresimir Kozina, who are really strong defenders. Success is always a product of a team, not a single player.”
And in general, he loves to be among those “Balkan Boys” at Göppingen with three Croatians (Kozina, Sarac and goalkeeper Marin Sego) and three Slovenians (Poteko, Jaka Malus and him); “We have the same mentality, we know how to fight. And we are called to be ‘tough’ players. I think we fit well in this group at Göppingen. I really appreciate this season at Göppingen.”