Montenegro overcome shaky first half to defeat Iceland

Montenegro are very close to qualifying for the World Championship 2015 ahead of the return match next week, but their 28:19 first leg win against Iceland in Podgorica on Sunday was a hard-fought one.

After Montenegro had enjoyed a start according to plan and were leading 3:1, Iceland took them by surprise and scored five goals in a row.

A timeout from Montenegrin coach Dragan Adzic at 6:3 in Iceland's favour did not help as the visitors increased to 10:4.

However, already before the break the home team had caught up and with 19 seconds left Katarina Bulatovic equalised at 12:12.

It was also Bulatovic, who scored nine goals overall, who granted Montenegro the lead at 13:12 soon after the game had started again.

The hosts then benefitted from an Icelandic 11-minute scoring drought to increase to 16:12.

Iceland kept the Montenegrins within four to five goals for a while, but in the end a strong finish from the home team increased the gap to nine goals and the final score of 28:19.