Sigurdsson and Peric celebrate successful EHF EURO 2016 Qualification premiere courtside

Three matches on this first day of the Men’s EHF EURO 2016 Qualification produced the expected results: Serbia beat Montenegro in the neighbour’s match after they visibly improved after the break, Germany overran Finland and also Norway had no problems in taking the victory against Turkey.

The Serbian and the German win also meant that two new coaches – Dagur Sigurdsson for Germany and Dejan Peric for Serbia – started their mission courtside successfully.

Group 1: Norway vs. Turkey 36:27 (18:13)

There was a bit of Groundhog Day feeling in Kristiansund. Similar to the first qualification match for the EHF EURO 2014 Norway’s first opponent was Turkey.

Almost exactly two years ago the result was 41:23 at the end; this time around the match was a bit closer, but nevertheless Norway prevailed.

Norway left no doubt about their motivation to win this match and it took them only 19 minutes to grind out a 12:5 lead.

Despite an improvement in defence, Turkey only reduced the gap to five goals at the break, while Norwegian coach Christian Berge – confident in his players’ abilities – had already started a huge rotation.

With some less rehearsed line-ups on the court, it took until the 44^th minute in which top scorer Kristian Björnsen, with his 11^th goal in his 11^th attempt, brought the goal distance between his team and Turkey for the first time to double figures at 28:18.

However, despite the defeat Turkey had the overall top scorer in their ranks as back court shooter Ramazan Döne netted 13 goals, scoring nearly half of all Turkish goals.

Group 4: Serbia vs. Montenegro 25:21 (10:9)

As many had expected, the neighbour’s match between Serbia and Montenegro was a tough defence battle for most of the time.

Even without goalkeeper Darko Stanic, Serbia built a true all of concrete in and around their goal in the first half – but Montenegro were equally successful in doing exactly this as well.

The result: Only 19 goals were scored before the break.

But with the second half commencing Serbia took control of the game straight away and led by THW Kiel right back Marko Vujin, who scored three of his seven goals overall during these crucial minutes, Serbia went ahead to 16:11 and 17:12.

At the latest when Vujin scored to make it 21:16, the deal was sealed for Serbia.

Best Montenegrin scorer was Fahrudin Melic with  six goals.

Group 7: Germany vs. Finland 30:18 (19:8)

The return of 1992 German Handball Player of the Year, Mikael Källman, who nowadays coaches the Finnish national team, ended without a surprise.

Finland were taught a lesson in international handball by Germany in a match which was also the premiere at competitive level for new German head coach Dagur Sigurdsson.

It was already after 20 minutes that the hosts led by ten goals, while it was visible that Finland lacked experience and skills to match Germany.

Despite the comfortable lead the hosts did not lose focus or concentration and it was only in the 38th minute that they allowed Finland to score their tenth goal.

Compared to the EHF EURO 2014 Qualification two years ago when Germany lost their opening match against Montenegro (27:31), they produced a fine performance this time – it  must be said, however, that the remaining two opponents, Austria and Spain, will arguably be of a much stronger calibre.

Best scorers were Uwe Gensheimer and Steffen Weinhold with four goals each for Germany and Andreas Rönnberg with six goals for Finland.