Iceland defeat struggling Serbia

Wednesday’s match is sure to haunt Serbia – a plague of missed shots meant a disappointing performance for a team that, before the match against Iceland, stood alone at the top of the table.

Group 4: Iceland vs. Serbia 38:22 (16:10)

While Iceland began hitting the back of the net immediately, it took Serbia over six minutes to score their first goal.

Serbia struggled to find their attacking form while Iceland crept ahead until they held a seven-goal lead after just 10 minutes (8:1). Serbia seemed to need to fight themselves as well as Iceland for each point as they slowly added to the scoreboard.

Even Momir Ilic, second top scorer in the VELUX EHF Champions League, was shooting well under his best.

Iceland however, were having no trouble finding the back of the net. Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson scored 12 goals in the match, Arnor Tor Gunnarsson contributed nine, and Aron Palmarsson scored six.

After the ten minute mark Serbia began to improve, playing a strong five minutes that saw them narrow the score line to 8:5 – but their troubles were not yet behind them.

When the half-time whistle blew Iceland were ahead by six (16:10) and the pressure was on for Serbia to play a spectacular second period if they had any hope of claiming the two points.

But the second half saw much the same story as the first, if not worse.

Iceland wasted no time in putting more goals on the board while Serbia laboured for each goal. Five minutes in Iceland had already increased their lead to 10 (21:11) and with 15 minutes remaining had doubled Serbia’s score (30:15).

With the final whistle Iceland claimed the two points that were never in question, moving up to the top of the table.

Serbia will undoubtedly be looking to be make up for Wednesday’s performance when they host Iceland for the second-leg match on Sunday.