Yesterday was the first day of qualifications for EURO 2010 in Austria. National teams from Balkan region had positive score, but firstly what has to surprise is a huge defeat of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Chekhov, where Russia won 37:25 (17:13) with very good Grams on the goal (19 saves). For BiH, Stojanovic and Harmandic scored five. Croatia had an easy day with Finland 39:20 (20:10) in front of home crowd in Zagreb, where some „new boys", as Duvnjak (9) and Strlek (6) were good substitions for Balic and company who missed this EHF week because of injuries. Serbia didnt leave a piece of chance to Faroe Island 41:20 (21:9), as last time in January, when Serbs had tough game against outsider. Left wing, Curuvija and right back, Vujin were the best scorer with 6 goals. Only bad thing for Serbian team on this long trip was red card of Zarko Sesum in first half of the game. Slovenia took two points in unpredictable Israel home court 36:28 (21:16). Ciudad Real, Pajovic (7) and Celje, Spiler (6) were the best in this game, which was warm up for the game against Germany on Sunday. At the end, Montenegro lost in Poland 20:30 (8:16), what was expected, if you took the real quality of these two teams, both without some best players (Stojanovic, Muratovic – Bielecki, Tkacik, Lijewski). Montenegro was in minus constantly (22:16, 25:18), but with the final whistle, players of Ranko Popovic (coach) pick up the biggest one.
translation: S.O.S
