The second round of Group A matches at the 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship gets underway at the Palau d’Esports in Granollers, Spain with Olympic champions France facing an in-form Slovenia, while Angola and Montenegro do battle in the second match.

Wins for Slovenia or France will see them qualify through to the main round, with a draw enough too should Angola or Montenegro lose.

Slovenia vs France 18:00 CET

“France are the Olympic champions and that's why they are the best team in this world championship,” said Slovenia coach Dragan Adzic to ihf.info about the upcoming clash on Sunday. 

“I really like to play against them and have had a good experience in the past [but] the main thing for me will be that we do our best and make a step forward in our improvement.”

Realistic words from the Slovenia coach Adzic in his first championship with a side featuring a mix of experience and youth, but after their 10-goal, 28:18 win over his former side Montenegro in their Friday opener, anything is possible.

The French pair of Allison Pineau and Oceane Sercien Ugolin ply their club trade at Ljubljana's Krim Mercator, while Slovenia captain Ana Gros is best known for her years of exploits in the French league with Brest and Metz.

Even more is known about each other as less than a year ago France won by 10 (27:17) at the 2020 European Championship, but a 24:23 win led by Gros (nine goals) at the 2017 IHF Women’s World Championship, saw Slovenia hand the eventual champions a tight defeat.

"We are preparing for the Olympic champions like any other competitor,” said Slovenia’s Ema Hrvatin. 

“We want to expand the good moments from the first match against Montenegro to them and stay in a good competitive rhythm. The French are effective in counter-attacks, so our return to defence will be very important.”

For the French, they continue to impress, defeating Angola by 10 (30:20) in their opener and giving debuts to two players, including Alicia Toublanc.

“I did not expect this gap…because you can ask yourself a thousand questions,” said France’s Tamara Horacek. “It is certain that we will have to be ready for the fight because the Slovenians play very well and fight.”

Montenegro vs Angola 20:30 CET

Montenegro got off to the worst possible start at Spain 2021, losing comprehensively against Slovenia (18:28) in their opening match – a team coached by their former coach, Dragan Adzic.

However, that match is now out of the way and Bojana Popovic’s side can concentrate on downing Angola as they aim qualify through to the main round.

Both teams know each other well, meeting as recently as July in their opening match of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the Europeans taking an 11-goal victory (33:22).

“This is not the first time we have played a bad game,” said Montenegro goalkeeper Marina Rajcic, who is part of the squad, but was not in the 16 against Slovenia, to rscg.me. “But we will get away with it as always, we know how, they don't call us ‘Lionesses’ in vain. 

“We know the formula for how to get out of this and I know that [against Angola] we will die on the court and we will win. We deserve that because we prepare to the maximum for every game.”

Preparing for games at a maximum level is not exclusive to Montenegro though and Angola too have worked just as hard for Spain 2021. They too lost their opener – against France 20:30 – but had plenty to be happy with against the Olympic champions despite the loss.