Filip Holender on EC 2021

2021 European Championships kick-off on 11th of June with a Italy v Turkey game to be played on Rome`s Olympic Stadium. 16th edition of EC will be played in 11 cities around the continent with 24 national teams taking part. 

Hungarian national team star Dominik Szoboszlai will miss the tournament due to an injury but Filip Holender is fit and ready to take part as the only Partizan player from current roster to make it to the EC 2021.

26-year old Holender made 26 Partizan appearances this season, scoring 9 goals and assisting 4 times.

“It`s a great honour for every player to be part of European Championships with his national team. It`s not about asking yourself “can you do it?’, it`s an honour and reward to be part of the tournament. My Partizan teammates will start their pre-season on 14th of June but that`s not going to be a problem for me as I have some days off and I will have enough time to get some rest and get ready for the upcoming season”, said Partizan winger.

 

Hungarians are part of the EC Group F along with France, Germany and Italy.

 

“We are with the best possible teams in the same group, we`ll do our best and we`ll see how it goes. It`s important we play our game and to enjoy and we`ll see what we can make of it in the end. We face strongest possible opponents but I`m not going to think about it, I just want to look at ourselves and how we can make it harder for all of them, as much as we can. I believe France is one of the favourites to win the tournament but you never know what can happen in a football game”, said Holender.

 

Partizan winger also spoke about Serbia, who didn`t qualify for EC 2021 but starts WC 2022 qualifying campaign now.

“Serbia has some fantastic players and I`m sure Serbian national team will  be successful in the future”.

 

Hungarians will be additionally motivated as they`ll play a couple of home games during the tournament.

 

“We`ll play two games at home ground, in front of our fans. I`m so happy about it as we put a lot of effort to qualify for the European Championships, a really long qualifying stage. Of course, it`s going to be great playing in front of home fans, as long as there are no subsequent changes”, says Filip Holender.