I am no one-man-show, it’s a team
Macedonian sniper Kiril Lazarov on the hopes and chances at the World Championship and with Barcelona in the VELUX EHF Champions League.
He is a sniper, a real goal machine: Kiril Lazarov has been top scorer of all competition he was part of. In 2009 he became best ever scorer at a single World Championship in Croatia by netting in 92 times, in 2012 he took the same “title” - best scorer of a single European Championship - by scoring 61 times at the EURO in Serbia. Twice he was top scorer of the EHF Champions League - and the Macedonian holds another record, being part of the last five IHF Super Globe events since 2010, starting for Al-Sadd (2010) followed by two participations including one title with Atletico Madrid (2011, 2012) and two titles with FC Barcelona (2013, 2014). In January, the 34 year old, who started his career in Bitola (Macedonia) before he became a top start in Veszprem (Hungary), Zagreb (Croatia), Madrid and Barcelona, returns to Doha, full of confidence that the Macedonian team can make it to the eighth-finals of the World Championship. In the preliminary round Macedonia face Austria, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran and Tunisia. In the previous weeks Lazarov showed his high importance for the Macedonians and his club FC Barcelona. Scoring 23 goals in the EHF EURO 2016 qualification he nearly was responsible for half of all Macedonian goals. In VELUX EHF Champions League he led Barca to their revenge at Flensburg by ten goals.
Do you have your time of your life at the moment, scoring series of goals?
Kiril Lazarov:
It is running quite good at the moment, but still it is not all about goals. If I score 20 times and my teams, it was a disappointment. Handball is a team sport, I try to help my team by scoring goals, but I am only satisfied when my teams win. My motivation is winning. I am a very ambitious person. If there is a title to win, I always want to get it.
In those circumstances it must have been very hard for you to lose last season’s Champions League semi-final against Flensburg despite an intermediate six goal advance…
Kiril Lazarov:
In my long career this was the most shocking match, I was really completely down on the floor. Seven minutes before the end we were ahead by six and only needed to go through the door to the final. But then we missed it. It was truly hard to recover from such a defeat. So it felt really good to take revenge on Flensburg on their ground by beating them in the group match. This might have already been the key to top our group in the end.
So the ambitions of FC Barcelona in the Champions League remain the same as usual - making it to the FINAL4 in Cologne?
Kiril Lazarov:
Indeed it is our goal, but so many teams have the same ambition this year and have a really high quality in their squads. I believe we will have highly thrilling fight for the tickets to Cologne. We definitely want to grab this chance to be part of the final event again. It is nearly an obligation for us.
Do you believe that it is an advantage for FC Barcelona that you can mainly focus on the Champions League as there are no more real opponents in the Spanish league anymore?
Kiril Lazarov:
The Spanish league is not that strong as it has been three or four years ago, but still there are some good clubs we have to be aware of. The quality of the players is still high and the Spanish youth and junior teams are among the top 4 of the world in all competitions. But indeed we have the strongest team in Spain and our ambitions are high. But still we have to have respect for all our opponents.
Is the Barcelona squad stronger or weaker compared to the last season?
Kiril Lazarov:
It is hard to say at that early moment of the season. We lost Arpad Sterbik, one of the best goalkeepers in the world, so we have to see how our young new goalkeeper Gonzalo Vargas de Perez develops. But on the other hand our squad has rehearsed one year more, so the experience has grown. All the players know much better, who runs where and what do in which situation. So maybe it is not stronger, but efficient - I would say at this moment. But the crucial part of the season will start after the World Championship. 15, 16 Barca player will compete in Qatar with heir national teams- and it is always decisive in which physical and mental condition they return to the club.
What are your expectations, what are the Macedonian expectations for the World Championship?
Kiril Lazarov:
High, truly very high. We have a very strong team with highly experienced players. And after we faced some problems at the 2014 European champions I hope that the time has come to show what we are capable of in Doha. It is our clear goal to it better than we did at the 2013 World Championship and the 2014 EHF EURO. Though we play in a very strong group we are confident and ambitious. I hope that - despite the big distance from our country to Qatar - a lot of our fans will travel to Doha to support us. With them we are much stronger.
Is there any certain goal for the World Championship?
Kiril Lazarov:
We want to go step by step and at that time it is not possible to predict a final result. But we want to use this World Championship as a launching pad for our great dream to qualify for the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio. Since generations all Macedonians hope for this step, we want to go it now - and therefore we need a good result at the World Championship to secure a spot in the qualification tournaments.
Is the Macedonian team a Lazarov-one-man-show?
Kiril Lazarov: No, we are a team, and I am just a part of it.
