Coach: Nenad Perunicic
Key Players: Nemanja Ilic
(left wing), Vladimir Cupara (goalkeeper), Nemanja Zelenovic (right back), Bogdan Radivojevic (right wing)
Qualification
Information: Winner of
European qualification play-off versus Portugal
History in Tournament: 1954-1990: as part of Yugoslavia, 1993-2005:
DNQ (as Serbia & Montenegro), 2007: DNQ (as Serbia), 2009: 8th, 2011: 10th,
2013: 10th, 2015: DNQ, 2017: DNQ
Under previous coach Ljubomir
Obradovic, Serbia qualified for Germany/Denmark 2019 thanks to a 53:46
aggregate win over Portugal back in June. Their seven-goal (28:21) win in the
first leg in Nis made it a near-impossible task for the
Portuguese to come back in the second leg four days later – that game finished
in a 25:25 draw to seal Serbia’s first appearance at the top global tournament
since their 10th place back in Spain, in 2013. As an independent nation, Serbia
have appeared just three times at this level previously, with a high of eighth
spot, back at Croatia 2009.
In the Portugal match-ups, left
wing Nemanja Ilic and right wing Bogdan Radivojevic both scored 10 times each
to end as top scorers and they will be two key players in Berlin as Serbia
start in the preliminary round against Russia before facing other group A
rivals, France, Brazil, Korea and hosts Germany.
“In the
qualification matches against Portugal we played surprisingly good and we hope
that our level of performance from then can be repeated in Germany,” said
captain Nemanja Ilic. “Our group in Berlin is tough and there are no teams
which can be beaten ‘on paper’. It is tough to say anything about our
ambitions, but we will go match-by-match, day-by-day.”
47-year-old coach Nenad Perunicic
took over the job back in September and the former player who won titles across
the world with a variety of clubs including Al-Ahli, SC Magdeburg, THW Kiel,
Pick Szeged and FC Barcelona, has been coaching RK Red Star Belgrade since 2011.
He already has experience of
winning a medal at a World Championship, having won bronze at the 1999 edition,
held in Egypt and is relishing the opportunity to participate at another one.
“Berlin will be a huge challenge for us,” said Perunicic. “There are no
outsiders in not only our group, but the championship as a whole and there is
no space to underestimate anyone. Our approach will be like we are playing
against Olympic champions every day.
“Korea
will cause problems to all the teams, while Brazil have a fantastic team with
most of the players playing in Europe, in France and Spain.
“When
you see that Diego Simonet from Argentina is one of the best in the world of
handball, people may look at you and think that you made mistake and changed it
with football,” continued the Serbia coach. “But that is the power of handball
and is a real challenge for old traditional handball nations – the only thing I
would like to have is healthy and motivated group of players at the end of
December.”
Follow Serbia at Germany/Denmark 2019 through their website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
Group at Germany/Denmark 2019
Group A: France,
Russia, Germany, Serbia, Brazil, Korea
Games at Germany/Denmark 2019
All times local
Friday 11 January Serbia vs Russia
Saturday 12
January France vs Serbia
Monday 14 January Serbia vs Brazil
Tuesday 15
January Korea vs Serbia
Thursday 17
January Germany vs Serbia
IHF &
Germany/Denmark 2019 Official Channels
Follow
the 2019 IHF Men’s Handball World Championship on our website as well as on our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. And make sure you don’t miss anything on the
World Championship’s official Facebook and Instagram channels.
Photo: Handball Federation of Serbia