Spain won their third consecutive Group A game to stay on course for a group-deciding clash against Slovenia on Monday (22 July). They beat Serbia by three goals tonight in what was a closer match then the difference suggested. 

The Serbians had gone into the match with a perfect record too, but now find themselves in third place in the group, on four points, ahead of Tunisia on two points, but behind Spain and group leaders Slovenia on six points each.

GROUP A
Spain vs Serbia 29:26 (13:12)

The final third round Group A match of the day started on a sombre note as the As Travesas Sports Hall in Vigo held an impeccably-observed minute’s silence in memory of the sudden passing of Diego Carrasco, coach of the Spanish women’s beach handball team.

What followed was an intense, emotional and exciting match between the host nation and Serbia – teams who went into the game with two wins out of two so far and both with dreams of winning the group over Slovenia, leaders at throw-off and who face both the Serbs and Spaniards in their final two games.

Spain led for the entire first half, even going ahead by five (7:2) in the 12th minute, but Serbia eventually closed the gap, going into the break just one down (13:12) thanks in no part to four first half goals from Vuk Milenkovic. However, on the cusp of the break, their intense defending came to a head when Marko Vignjevic fouled Natan Antonio Suarez Diaz to pick up his third two-minute suspension, and a red card.

The second half was just as close as the first, but Serbia were not able to draw level as much as they tried – sometimes too much as their eventual eight, two-minute suspensions attested to, but despite Serbia causing their own problems the last 10 minutes was a rollercoaster ride for the home crowd.

Spain coach Isidoro Martinez Martin called his second time out with 51:47 on the clock and his team 24:23 up and in the following attack Serbia’s Uros Todorovic received one of those Serbian two-minute suspensions as Pol Valera Rovira sunk home the resulting seven-metre (25:23).

But, despite being a man down, Serbia went up the other end to score through their Jovica Nikolic, but Spain again through Rovira opened up a two-goal lead (26:24). Serbia then missed their next attack in the 54th minute and, somehow, Rovira squeezed a shot in through traffic to open a three-goal gap (27:24, 55th minute) and seemingly put the game to bed.

A third Serbian time out soon followed and a well-worked chance for Milan Milic presented itself but Spain’s goalkeeper, Kilian Ramirez pushed it onto the post. Serbia did score soon after though (27:25) thanks to a nice spin into space and shot home from Srdan Mijatovic but the ill-discipline again showed as he went down the other end and grabbed Spain’s Ivan Jose Montoya Martinez on the line for another two-minute and another Rovira seven-metre (28:25) inside the final 60 seconds.

Aleksa Maksic then had too tight of angle to pull the score within two and Spain went down the other end with Montoya Martinez powering through (29:25) to ensure that Nikola Todorovic’s late strike was merely a consolation for the Serbians.

Best Player of the Match: Pol Valera Rovira (ESP)