Thanks to their sixth consecutive victory record World Champion is only one point away from the semi final. By beating Spain 29:22 the Russians are equal in points with table leader Montenegro (each six) now. As Russia plays against Brazil in their last Main Round match, Hungary (5 points) meet Montenegro in the final match of group II to decide about the semi finalists. If Russia and Montenegro remain with the same number of points, Montenegro’s ahead thanks to the victory in the direct encounter. In group I the spectators saw a game of two completely different halfs in the evening session won by the Netherlands against Serbia after an intermediate ten goal disadvantage. Before Norway and Korea had already qualified for the semis.

Main Round group I:

Netherlands – Serbia 36:34 (15:23)

70 goals, very tough defense sides and a catch-up chase like never seen before during this WCH imprinted this game. At the end the Dutch spectators celebrated the victory with their team. No one could expect the Netherlands winning after Serbia showed an impressive first half – and in the Dutch nothing worked, as it should. After the 7:1, the Netherlands took their time-out early, but without success, as the Balkan team even increased the distance to 14:8 and 21:11 (minute 25) especially thanks to line player Dragan Cvijic. But as the Serbian battery was going slowly to zero in the second half and the Netherlands improved, the distance was melting minute by minute – in a match with a lot of suspensions and injuries. In minute 40 the score was 27:22, only three minutes later 28:26. As the Dutch goalkeeper saved some important shots, the defense strengthen up and Serbia couldn’t avoid the counter attack goals, the Netherlands equalized for the first time at the score of 32:32. Even as Serbia took the lead again, the Dutch were in total control, as the opponents were completely out of power. After the 35:34 the Dutch goalkeeper saved the last Serbian shot and Polman scored the final result with the final whistle. Top scorers were Cvijic and Trifunovic with each eight goals for Serbia and van der Heijden with ten Dutch goals, six of them in the second half. Serbian coach Zlatko Causevic was highly disappointed, not only because of the result, but of some severe injuries in his team: “In the first half we played really well, then those injuries broke our rhythm.” The Dutch assistant coach Robert Baardse was “extremely happy” with the points, “as we reached today’s goal.” His team still can reach fifth place in the group, if they beat Germany on Tuesday. “We played as a team in the second and we did a great job”, was the opinion of Dutch player Jessy Kramer.

Main Round group II:

Russia – Spain 29:22 (18:10)

A solo by Khmyrova and Kudryashova (top scorer with in total five goals) brought Russia an extremely good base for the match, as those players scored all Russian goals to the intermediate result of 8:1. Thanks to their real strong defense and the fact that Spain couldn’t stop the Russian express the record Juniors World Champion extended the lead to a quite comfortable score of 18:8 and 18:10 at the break. This dominance remained in the second half as Russia again extended the lead to ten goals at the score of 27:17 in minute 52 – the final decision. As Russia slowed down and couldn’t keep their concentration high, the Iberians caught up a little with an 8:3 series until the end – but were far away from turning the match. As all Russian field players scored only Ana Martinez was able to break the Russian defense wall with her seven goals. The Russian dominance is shown in the attack’s percentage: 60 percent of all attacks ended with goals. Due to this defeat – after beating surprisingly Montenegro yesterday – Spain is out of the race for the semi finals.