Preliminary Group D winners Serbia face local rivals Montenegro in the first eighth-final at the GETEC-Arena in Magdeburg, as the fourth-placed Group C side look to improve on their recent performances which saw them scrape through to the knockout stage after a tense draw with Brazil.

Host nation Germany come to Magdeburg where they will face northern neighbours Denmark in the evening match and the pressure will be on for the home team knowing that a win is the only option.
 
Prior to the eighth-finals, a Pan-American clash will take place as Paraguay play Argentina and then Tunisia take on China in the President’s Cup.  
 
Eighth-Finals

Serbia vs Montenegro 17:30 local time
 
Ljubomir Obradovic’s Serbia side remain unbeaten at Germany 2017 having, as expected, beaten China (43:23) and Cameroon (34:21) in their preliminary group along with draws against Germany (22:22) and Netherlands (27:27) meaning they went into their final Group D match looking for a win over Korea to ensure to spot in the group, which they did, running out 33:28 winners.

The 2013 runners-up left their coach purring with excitement in a game in which almost every player contributed on the scoreboard. “It was a great spectacle, really on the level of the World Championship,” he said.
 
Serbia face a Montenegro side looking to show their real qualities after they squeezed through their Preliminary Group with a 23:23 draw against 2013 champions Brazil – had the South Americans won, Montenegro would have been eliminated from Germany 2017, an outcome no-one would have expected after Per Johansson’s side were impressive in their opening day defeat of Denmark (31:24). 

A loss against Olympic champions Russia (28:24) followed and then the rapidly-improved Japan then defeated the 2012 Olympic silver medallists 29:28. Tunisia put up a test, but the Europeans prevailed, winning 29:23 and the team of Katarina Bulatovic, Jovanka Radicevic and co. went into their final match tense.

Radicevic (29 goals from 44 shots) leads the Montenegro scoring while first-choice goalkeeper Marina Rajcic has a 42% save ratio. For Serbia, Katarina Krpez Slezak has 28 goals (from 39 shots) and the goalkeeping duo of Katarina Tomasevic and Marija Colic have a 35% average (65/186).

Both teams met in the Preliminary Round of the 2015 IHF Women's World Championship in Denmark  and could not be separated as the game finished 28:28 (16:14) with Bulatovic (8) and Krpez Slezak (6) top scoring in Herning.

Germany vs Denmark 20:30 local time

 At the 1997 IHF Women’s World Championship in Germany, the host nation finished with a bronze medal and 10 years later, in 2007, in the men’s edition held in Germany also, the home side grabbed gold.

Can 2017 make it a third time in the neat series of 10-year gaps, in a year ending with seven where Germany as host nation will be on the podium?

One thing is for sure – there is no room for error from the home nation as they prepare to face neighbours Denmark in the evening match in Magdeburg. Their third-place finish in Group D behind Serbia and Netherlands came after four matches in a row unbeaten – against Cameroon (28:15), Korea (23:18), Serbia (22:22) and China 24:9). This meant Michael Biegler’s side went into their final Preliminary Group match against Netherlands top, but a heavy loss (31:23), combined with other results saw them slip down two places.

The World Championship-ending injury to the influential Kim Naidzinavicius have affected the host nation’s shape, but they spread the goals around with Svenja Huber (18) their top scorer, backed up by the experienced goalkeeping duo of Katja Kramarczyk and Clara Woltering who boast an impressive 40% save rate (63/158).

On the other side, Denmark finished second in Group C behind the strong Russians, after their opening group match loss to Montenegro (31:24) was followed by three wins in a row as expected (vs Japan – 32:18, vs Tunisia – 37:19, Brazil – 22:20). A final day loss against the Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallists (32:27) meant that coach Klavs Brunn Jorgensen will be hoping his side can pick themselves up quickly.

Helping them do that will be the young top-scorer Stine Jorgensen (24 goals/44 shots) who has Sandra Toft as the first-choice goalkeeper behind her with a 33% save ratio (41/123).

The two sides met in the 2013 IHF Women’s World Championship in Serbia, with the Danes winning 31:28 in the quarter-finals thanks to seven strikes from Kristina Kristiansen. However, the high-profile Danish player has just been replaced in the squad and will not be able to repeat her feat later today.

President’s Cup

Paraguay vs Argentina 11:30

This Pan American duel sees the bottom teams of Group A and B clash in the opening match of Germany 2017 in Magdeburg with both teams having lost all five of their Preliminary Group games.

While Argentina had a group of death in Bietigheim-Bissingen (losses against Czech Republic, Norway, Hungary, Sweden and Poland), Paraguay, with defeats against Romania, Spain, France, Slovenia and Angola, have been warming up nicely and this match looks set to be a tough fight for regional honours.

Tunisia, like Paraguay in the second President’s Cup match (below) can both boast tournament fifth-place top scorers in Mouna Chebbah and Sabrina Fiore Morinigo, but this says more about their reliance on one outlet of goals, then their overall scoring capacity.

Tunisia vs China 14:00

Former London 2012 Great Britain women’s coach Jesper Holmris has had no shortage of experience at Germany 2017 about the tough test ahead for his China side as they aim to get their first win of the tournament against an injury-affect Tunisia.

Scoring 23 goals against Serbia in their opening Preliminary Group match was impressive but the 20-goal loss saw the work needed to be done at the other end of the court. 

Unfortunately, this was followed by further losses against Netherlands, Korea and Germany – where the Asian team could only score nine goals – and a draw against Cameroon (26:26) which was not enough to finish fifth, meaning a bottom place ranking in Group D to set up this tie against Tunisia, who placed bottom in Group C after five straight losses (against Russia, Brazil, Denmark, Montenegro and Japan). Although their narrow 23:22 defeat to Brazil showed evidence of their ability.