The Westfalenhalle in Dortmund witnessed one of the most complete goalkeeping performances so far at Germany/Netherlands 2025 as Montenegro’s Armelle Attingre ended with an otherworldly 62% save rate after facing 29 shots.

Her 18 saves were clearly the difference in this classic derby and helped the Montenegrins jump above their rivals in main round, group II and into the second quarter-final qualification place.

The result means that Montenegro now wait until the result of the following Spain vs Germany game and, on six points, hope that Spain (4 points) do no better than draw.

Main Round, Group IV
Montenegro vs Serbia 33:17 (13:9)

As the Montenegro delegation celebrated on court in front of their small, but vocal group of supporters, the sounds of the classic Christmas song, ‘I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas’, could be heard echoing around the Westfalenhalle.

Montenegro’s dream right now is that Spain do not beat Germany later on Saturday (6 December) and with it, qualify for the quarter-finals of the 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship where they will look to improve on their best-ever ranking of fifth (Japan 2019).

Serbia went into this game in a strong position, a point ahead of their rivals, but with the disappointment of throwing away a point against the Faroe Islands last time out.

And Attingre made her intentions clear early on as Serbia could not score until their ninth attack (Jovana Jovovic, 9th minute), but, by then they were already 5:0 behind.

In that period alone Attingre made six saves and Serbia had no answer at all to her performance, which continued up until the break, the goalkeeper making 10 saves from the 18 shots faced and her side going in 13:9 ahead.

On the line, Tatjana Brnovic was having a good contest Dragana Cvijic but the Montenegrin leader was not happy with the performance of her team, coming over to the bench to make her feelings known to Jovana Skrobic after the left back misplaced a pass.

Some urgency from the Serbians had been shown on the 20 minute-mark and they did gradually claw their way back, but another turnover in attack had seen them unable to reduce the different to three (29th minute) just before the break.

The expected second-half fight-back never came, instead, it was the exact opposite as Montenegro powered 17:9 ahead, despite their onslaught paused by a Serbian time-out (34th minute).

Even with a double suspension to Ivana Godec and Brnovic together one minute later did not stop the progression of the score upwards, the double-digit lead coming as soon as the 41st minute (21:11) and only extending over the final third of the game.

hummel Player of the Match: Armelle Attingre (Montenegro)