GROUP A
H2H: 6-0-2
Top scorers: Ian Tarrafeta 6/8 (Spain) 6/8, Uroš Kojadinović 6/8 (Serbia)
Goalkeeper saves: Ignacio Biosca 3/11, Sergey Hernández 4/22 (both Spain), Dejan Milosavljev 6/28, Vladimir Cupara 1/6 (both Serbia)
POTM presented by Grundfos: Ian Tarrafeta (Spain)
- it was a low-scoring start, with initial advantage for the Spaniards, who netted the first EHF EURO goal in Herning through Daniel Fernández and then put pressure on the Serbs, who almost only scored by penalties in the first 20 minutes
- after Serbia reduced the gap to two and Spain faced problems in defence, the two-time EHF EURO champions took control again ahead of the break in the first EHF EURO duel between the sides sides, mainly thanks to their back-court shooters
- the low number of scores and the frequent suspensions continued after the break, as both sides only netted one goal each in the first six minutes of the second half, in what was the first official match of Spaniard Raúl González as Serbia's head coach
- both teams operated with extremely long attacks against solid defensive sides until minute 47, when Abel Serdio netted for the first five-goal gap for the Spaniards, at 25:20
- but the momentum seem to change again as Spain caused an unexpected high number of mistakes in attack, allowing Serbia to hope for at least a point — in crunch time, Spanish goalkeeper and EHF Champions League winner Sergey Hernández was the crucial factor
Spain avoid a shocking start like in 2024
Two years ago in Germany, Spain were shocked by a 29:39 opening defeat against Croatia and finally missed qualifying for the main round. In Herning, they managed to avoid a start like this against another Balkan team, but still did not play on their previous level. Although Daniel Dujshebaev was not in the squad, and his brother Alex did not play in the first half, the two-time EHF EURO champions found different ways to break the Serbian defence — through Ian Tarrafeta and Abel Serdio in the first half.
Both sides played with extremely low risk and low speed, but Spain had a higher efficiency in attack. With two teams in transition, the overall quality was not that high, making it a classic opener with a lot of mistakes. Serbia were not chanceless, fought until the end, but missed too many opportunities to turn the match around.
There are always nerves in the beginning and I didn't think that we had so many lost balls, as we only had two in the first half and I'm not sure about the second half, but we had some missed shots and I think we can maybe fix that. We made a really good job in defence and in attack and how we played, and even though we had some missed shots, we can work with this.
I think we played not a really good game and we can do much, much better everywhere on the court in attack, in defence and make more saves and the efficiency in the shot. Now we need to be perfect and to start winning against Germany. As I said before, this game will be like a final for us.
