For the first time in history Montenegro has reached a semi final of a Women’s Junior World Championship. The Balkan team beat Hungary in the decisive last match of Main Round group II 20:16 and by this became  winner of this group. On Thursday Montenegro will meet Norway in the second semi finals, before Korea will play against Russia. Montenegro is equal in points with Russia, but won the direct encounter. For the Balkan team it was the seventh victory in their eight match, they only were defeated by Spain in the Main Round. Before Korea had beaten Norway and remained the only spotless team in this competition.  Russia had beaten Brazil and finished as runners-up of group II. Due to the defeat Hungary missed the semis and is third in their group. The Hungarians will play the placement match 5/6 against the Netherlands that beat Germany in the last match of group I 34:30. 
 
Main Round 
Group I:  Germany – Netherlands 30:34 (15:15)
Germany missed the chance to take revenge for the defeat in the qualification tournament for this WCH. Maybe the Germans were still disappointed from their close defeat against Korea on Sunday which meant that they had missed the semi finals. The first half and the beginning of the second half were absolutely equal. As Germany had the better goalkeeper (Nele Kurzke), the Netherlands were stronger in attack. But in the end both teams neutralized themselves. But as the German powers decreased and the Netherlands improved from minute 42 on, the Dutch team (now five points) overtook the title holder (still four points) in the ranking of the group and now will play for the places 5/6 against Hungary. Germany will meet Sweden in the placement match 7/8 – and missed their last objective, to reach the fifth place. After the 20:20 the Netherlands decided the game and increased the lead up to 28:23 –and then nearly kept this distance until the end, even as Germany could reduce to three goals, but in the end it were four. “It was a well-deserved victory,” Dutch coach Gino Smits said: “We could play our game with speed in attack.” Danick Snelder, who scored seven goals, said: “Our defense was the key to success. We blocked a lot of balls and then could start our counter attack play.” Dutch top scorer was Laura van der Heijden again (10 goals), for Germany Marlene Zapf was most successful with eight goals.”We didn’t have the impetus we had against Korea. This was the reason for our defeat,” German coach Andreas Schwabe said.

Group II:  Hungary – Montenegro 16:20 (8:9)
They celebrated as if they would have become World Champion: Montenegro remains the biggest surprise at this WCH in Korea. “It was the heart of Montenegro that has won this match. This was a great day for us and our country, but now we fully concentrate on the semi final against Norway,” coach Dragan Adzic said. Player Milena Knezevic added: “It was a totally tough game. Hungary was better than us on the papers, but we were well prepared and fought very hard until this victory was safe and well.”  The last and decisive match of group II was close until the very last minutes.  After Montenegro led 5:2, the Hungarians improved in match with very little goals in the first half. At the break the Balkan team was still in lead, but with only one goal. Thanks to Knezevic and Markovic Montenegro again went away to a four goal lead (14:10), but Hungary caught up again, but couldn’t equalize until the very end. After the 17:16 Montenegro decided the match with three consecutive goals. Top scorers were Knezevic (ten goals) and Dravaj (four for Hungary). 

Semi finals on Thursday in Seoul:
14.00: Korea – Russia
16.30: Norway - Montenegro
 
Placement matches on Thursday in Gwangju:
19.00: 5/6: Netherlands – Hungary
16.45: 7/8: Germany  - Sweden
14.30: 9/10: Serbia - Spain
12.15: 11/12: Croatia – Brazil
 
Final ranking of President’s Cup
13. France
14. Angola
15. Argentina
16. Japan
17. China
18. Mexico
19. Tunisia
20. Thailand
21. Greenland
22. Australia
23. DR Congo
24. Hong Kong