Montenegro and North Macedonia, two of the three Balkan hosts of the EHF EURO 2022, met for the second time this week at a EURO CUP match.

Despite reinforcing their squad after a 29:21 away win, the Montenegrins were inconsistent, but in the end celebrated another victory, 31:30.

Montenegro vs North Macedonia 31:30 (16:16)

• in a high-scoring first half, Montenegro led by three goals at 10:7, yet the visitors drew level before the break
• a 5:0 run in the second half propelled the home side to a 27:21 lead before North Macedonia enjoyed their own 5:0 run to cut the deficit to 27:26
• Montenegro's lead increased again to 31:27 with five minutes to go, so the visitors' late 3:0 run did not affect the result
• compared to the first match on Thursday, key players Jovanka Radicevic, Milena Raicevic and Majda Mehmedovic returned to Montenegro's squad
• Radicevic was top scorer of the match with nine goals, while Angela Jankulovska netted eight times for North Macedonia      

Macedonians improved a lot

Both sides looked quite happy after the final buzzer. While Montenegro added two points to their tally and are in second place behind Norway only on goal difference, the Macedonians were also satisfied with their performance, which has improved a lot since Thursday.

Had their goalkeepers recorded more than a meagre five saves during the match (13 per cent save rate), North Macedonia certainly could have won in Niksic.