The first match of Group A pitted Angola against a Serbia team who at one point wasn’t sure they were going to be at this World Championship having to win a play-off against Poland. Serbia proved they belong with an impressive 32:25 victory against the African Champions in a match they never trailed.

GROUP A
Serbia vs Angola 32:25 (16:12)

Željka Nikolić gave Serbia the early 1:0 advantage 1:42 into the match in what would turn out to be the lead for good. Nikolić continued the scoring early and often netting four of the first six goals helping the Serbs get out to a quick 7:3 lead. She finished with a match leading seven goals. As the first half continued she got some help in the form of goals from teammates Jelena Trifunović, Slađana Pop-Lazić and Dragana Cvijić to go into halftime ahead 16:12.

Angola did their best to keep up and did well to avoid getting into big deficits utilising a diverse offensive attack. Four different players scored their first four goals. Two late first half goals by 
Isabel Guialo and Juliana Machado brought the match within four points and looked like it could be a catalyst for a second half run. 

It proved to be as two minutes into the second half saw two goals from Helena Paulo and Azenaide Carlos brought Angola back to 14:16. However, two goals is as close as Angola would get. After managing to withstand the run, Serbia jumped back out to an eight goal lead 31:23 with goals from Dijana Radojević and Trifunović.

Angola tried to make a run late in the second half but came up short thanks to four goals in the final 11 minutes from Left Wing Dijana Radojević to secure the seven goal victory.

Serbia looks to carry this momentum as they face Cuba in their second group match on Monday while Angola goes up against the EHF EURO 2018 bronze medallists The Netherlands.

hummel Player of the Match: Jelena Lavko, Serbia