Two victories, many goals, nice actions and "lions" that are biting again...
The Montenegrin handball players with a maximum of four points started a new era with Didier Dinar on the bench and practically already secured their eighth appearance at the European Championship.
Mirko Radović and his friends defeated Finland in Podgorica (29:28) and Slovakia in Košice (38:35), so at the start of the qualification for EHF Euro 2026 they are among the nine selections with maximum performance.
In addition to the "lions", there are also Slovenia, Hungary, Iceland, Spain, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany and Portugal.
Everyone in Dinar's team is equally responsible for the excellent start, but two guys stood out in terms of numbers - Nebojša Simić with his defenses and Radojica Čepić with his goals.
Our goalkeeper registered 26 saves, and he "took off" two seven-pointers during the mentioned two matches, and with 30,23 percent of the saved shots, he is at the top according to this statistical parameter, while Čepić scored a total of 16 goals.
In the first match against Finland, the defender of the "lions" was without a miss (7-7), while against Slovakia he hit nine of 11 shots. In addition to all that, he recorded seven assists. Of course, Branko Vujović also stood out with his goals during the previous two rounds, who shook the nets of Finnish and Slovakian goalkeepers 14 times.
Montenegro rattled Slovakia's net 38 times, which is the second best attacking performance in the history of the national team - the record is still 41 goals against Finland in January 2007, the first official match after the restoration of independence.
The first two rounds also brought some surprising results, such as the victory of Lithuania over North Macedonia or the draw between Poland and Israel, however, Italy was once again responsible for the miracles.
The selection that half a year ago shockingly left Montenegro without the World Cup, tormented Spain in Valencia (31:30 defeat), and then defeated Serbia (31:30) in Fasan.
Bonus video:
