The European sides in group G kept the victorious streak on the opening day of the 2024 IHF Women’s Junior World Championship. After Portugal sealed a convincing win against Guinea, so did Montenegro against Uzbekistan,  48:32.

GROUP G
Montenegro vs Uzbekistan 48:32 (23:11)

Uzbekistan are back at the IHF Women’s Junior World Championship after eight years and eyeing their first-ever win at the world flagship competition. However, they will have to keep on hoping for a breakthrough as Montenegro triumphed in their clash, just as they did in 2016.

Winners of the Women's IHF Trophy InterContinental Phase, Uzbekistan, were looking solid defensive-wise in the opening minutes, helping their goalkeeper Rukhshona Ruzieva to save the powerful shots from Montenegro. However, the lack of experience and strong opponents resulted in topsy-turvy play allowing the opponents to shine.

Led by left wing Ivana Vujadinovic, Montenegro used a 5-0 unanswered run and set a 12:6 lead after 17 minutes. Uzbekistan tried to wrestle back but failing to score for eight minutes hampered any chances.

Montenegro were keeping a steady course with their goalkeeper and Alkaloid Player of the Match Marija Marsenic who mustered 11 saves by halftime and 16 in total after 46 minutes played. The European side kept dominating the court in Jane Sandanski 2 Sports Center but still left room for Uzbekistan to showcase their skills, as the Asian side scored their largest number of goals in history in the competition, beating the previous record by one goal.

Uzbekistan further tried to shake things up a bit by playing with more depth in defence, shifting from 5-1 to 6-0 but Montenegro managed to find a way around it with new players entering the court.

Montenegro's head coach Igor Markovic gave a fair chance to feature to all players. 13 out of 14 field players helped their side score 48 goals which is the highest number of goals scored at the North Macedonia 2024, followed by Denmark's 43 earlier on Wednesday. This was also Montenegro's largest-scoring match ever at the IHF Women's Junior World Championship.

On Friday, Montenegro will clash with Guinea and Uzbekistan will try their best to luck against another European side, Portugal.

Alkaloid Player of the Match: Marija Marsenic (Montenegro)