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Serbia aim to join Spain and Slovenia’s table-topping party

21 Jul. 2019

Serbia aim to join Spain and Slovenia’s table-topping party

With the penultimate round of games in Group A set to take place at the As Travesas Sport Hall in Vigo today, the derby match between Serbia and Slovenia takes centre stage with Slovenia aiming to make it four wins out of four and Serbia looking to show a disciplined game from start to finish to get the points.

The USA opens the day of matches against Tunisia, with Japan playing the host nation in the late game.

GROUP A

Feature match: Serbia vs Slovenia
As Travesas Sport Hall, Vigo – 18:30, local time

Ahead of the final round of Group A matches tomorrow (22 July) which will see Spain take on Slovenia – both with three wins out of three (six points) so far at Spain 2019 – Serbia take on the Slovenians tonight knowing that a win could put them in with an outside chance of winning the group, depending on all following results over the next two matchdays.

The Serbians showed their power against Spain last time out, but eventually lost 29:26 due to the host nations’ attacking force and Serbian ill-discipline which saw them receive numerous two-minute suspensions at crucial times.

Even though the Spanish official website said that Slovenia’s form provided a “serious warning” to the young Spain team, Serbia will want to nullify that potential Slovenian threat to win the group after pushing the hosts all the way last time around.

Slovenia, who have yet to face an European opponent yet, find themselves scoring on average 34-35 goals per game and conceding just 21 at the back, roughly the same as the Serbian defence, which faced Japan and USA before the Spain clash.

It will be interesting to see how Boris Rojevic’s Serbia adapt to the European champions’ free-scoring today (Serbia average 28 goals per game at Spain 2019), but their coach Sasa Prapotnik, who has overseen his side defeat Tunisia, Japan and USA so far, admitted after the American victory (43:16) that it was important to finish first or second in the group to ensure lower-ranked opponents in the eighth-finals.

He also revealed that the first part of the competition phase for his side had “ended with our third match,” with the second part now seeing his side take on two European teams in a row – a much different and harder test for his team which he admitted before the tournament were looking for at least a semi-final spot.

USA, Japan waiting to get off of the mark

Both Japan and the United States of America face a big challenge to get their first points at Spain 2019 with the Asian side taking on the host nation Spain and the USA facing Tunisia.

Spain will be expecting two further points and a healthy score difference against Japan who have not quite done enough in tight losses against Tunisia and Serbia and a seven-goal defeat against Slovenia.

Tunisia expect to win against the USA at 16:30 (local time) which will put them equal on points with Serbia ahead of their clash against Slovenia (18:00).

Group A – As Travesas Sport Hall, Vigo: Sunday 21 July
All times local

16:30    USA vs TUN
18:30    SRB vs SLO
21:00    ESP vs JPN