Germany and Serbia share victories in test matches

A close defeat and a clear victory in less than 24 hours – those were the results for the German men’s team against EHF EURO 2012 silver medallist Serbia in two test matches on home soil on Saturday and Sunday (22 / 23 September).

Both teams took the chance to prepare for the start of the qualification matches for the EHF EURO 2014 in Denmark, starting in November.

Serbia was the lucky 33:31 (16:15) winner in the first match in Schwerin, Germany, despite the absence of top stars Momir Ilic and Marko Vujin (both play for German club THW Kiel).

The EHF EURO 2012 silver medallist had the better start and led 7:2, before German head coach Martin Heuberger called a timeout and his team was able to break the Serbian spell intermediately.

At 10:11 the match was nearly levelled again, and the Germans took control after the break, extending the gap to 27:24 by the 48th minute. But the Serbs kept their heads up high, equalised and then decided the match when they took a 32:30 lead shortly before the end.
 
Top scorers in the first duel - the 150th international match for German Dominik Klein - were Uwe Gensheimer (eight goals for Germany) and Ljubomir Josic who scored seven times for Serbia.

But just 20 hours later the Germans turned the tables and beat their opponent, that rested  most of their stars again, 32:23 (19:13) in Rostock. 

Thanks to a much more concentrated start and the huge number of saves of goalkeeper Silvio Heinevetter after the break the final result was a clear one.

Heuberger tested several young players, some of them like right wing Tobias Reichmann played their first ever international in a German senior team. But despite big names like Holger Glandorf or Michael Haaß were missing, the second duel was one-sided.

On the other hand, Serbian coach Veselin Vukovic had the same objective to check the form of some younger players for the upcoming EHF EURO 2014 qualification.

In the 20th minute Germany led 11:8 before gaining momentum and going into half-time with a 6-goal margin (19:13). After the break Serbia were not able to close the gap and Germany played even more dominant.

Top scorers were Michael Müller (six goals for Germany) and Mijajlo Marsenic (four goals for Serbia).

“We were too tired and Germany improved their performance – this is why such a result can happen,” Serbian coach Vukovic said after he had been fully satisfied with his young players after the first test match.

Despite the defeat in the first match, German coach Heuberger saw his team on the right track: “Those tests were highly important for us and I am satisfied with the way we played.

"Serbia was an ideal opponent as from mentality and tactics they are equal to Montenegro, our first opponent in the EHF EURO 2014 qualification. We have seen that we have a big number of alternatives, but there’s still a long way to return to the top of Europe.”