Coach: Bojana Popovic

 

Key Players: Nikolina Knezevic (centre back), Anastasija Babovic (goalkeeper), Nikolina Vukcevic (back court), Ivana Godec (line player)

 

Qualification for Poland 2018: Women’s 17 EHF EURO 2017 – 11th

 

History in Tournament: 2006-2010: DNQ, 2012: 11th, 2014: 4th, 2016: DNQ

 

Overview

 

Montenegro qualified for just their third-ever IHF Women’s Youth World Championship after taking 11th place at the 2017 Women’s EHF EURO U17 held last year in Slovakia. Despite just two previous appearances at the youth world level they have already impressed, finishing fourth back in 2014 in FYR Macedonia after losing in the bronze-medal match against Denmark 20:19 with Montenegrin star player Durdina Jaukovic scoring seven times.

 

In Slovakia they lost 30:23 to Hungary and then 22:13 to Denmark in their opening two preliminary group games before finally getting a win over Croatia, 23:17. In the intermediate round they lost to Netherlands 20:15, but their 25:22 victory against Austria put them into the 9-12 placement round.

 

Unfortunately, they were beaten by Sweden heavily 28:19 in the first round of games, but the 11/12 placement match against Slovakia saw them overcome a home crowd to win 22:20.

 

18-year-old centre back Nikolina Knezevic scored 30 goals in Slovakia and is a real threat for her side at 1,80m, while back player Nikolina Vukcevic, along with U18 teammate Ivana Godec, recently played with more senior players at the 2018 Mediterranean Games where her side picked up silver. Line player Godec scored 28 times in Slovakia.

 

Montenegro are coached by legendary player Bojana Popovic, who took over last year following the Slovakia campaign. Popovic, who won silver with her country at the London 2012 Olympic Games, has a wide range of coaching experience having been assistant to Dragan Adzic with the senior team as well as with club team Buducnost, who reached the Women’s EHF Champions League quarter-finals last season and who featured Babovic and Godec.

 

Montenegro start their Poland 2018 campaign with a match against France before taking on European rivals Spain. They end their campaign by playing teams from Asia and Africa as they hope to qualify through to the eighth-finals and look to get somewhere near their impressive fourth place back in 2014.

 

Along with Babovic and Vukcevic, centre back Nada Corovic played for the women’s U20 team at the 2018 IHF Women’s Junior (U20) World Championship in Hungary. Babovic played all six games for her country who finished 16th, while Vukcevic scored three times in four games and Corovic scored twice in her solitary game.

 

Group at Poland 2018

Group D: Republic of Korea, France, Spain, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Montenegro

 

Games at Poland 2018

All times local

 

Tuesday 7 August: FRA-MNE (18:00)

Wednesday 8 August: MNE-ESP (20:00)

Friday 10 August: KOR-MNE (10:00)

Saturday 11 August: MNE-TUN (20:00)

Monday 13 August: KAZ-MNE (10:00)

 

IHF and World Championship social media

Follow the 2018 IHF Women’s Youth (U18) World Championship on the IHF website, on the IHF Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube channels, as well as on the official event website, Facebook and Twitter channels.

Photo: Handball Federation of Montenegro