EHF EURO 2018, Day 1: Croatia heavily beats Serbia, Belarus achieve a narrow win over Austria

CRO - SRB

The opening day of the EHF Euro 2018 produced many memorable moments already. Here is how 3 SEHA countries- Belarus, Croatia and Serbia played in the first day of the tournament.

Group B (Porec): Belarus - Austria 27:26 (14:12)In the first match in Group B, Belarus secured an important win over Austria. Belarusians managed to open the tournament in the best possible way, by defeating their main rivals in the fight for a place in the next round. Kulesh and Pukhouski led the winning team with 12 goals combined, and Bilyk was on top of his game for Austria winning the man of the match award. Meshkov's players did really well: Rutenka and Yurynok both scored 4, with Shylovich chipping with 2 goals. Nexe's Kristian Pilipovic had 2 saves for Austria. The second match in this group saw France beat Norway after being down for most of the game.

Group A (Split): Croatia - Serbia 32:22 (14:9)A dominant performance saw the hosts start the tournament in the most spectacular way. Croatians were superb in offense, being quick to punish every mistake Serbian players did. Croatian team was dominant throughout the whole match, never letting the lead slip. However, Domagoj Duvnjak suffered what looked to be a pretty bad injury which leaves a bitter taste to this big victory. Cervar's men looked strong during all 60 minutes which led to a big margin in the end. Strlek and Stepancic led them to a victory by scoring 6 goals each. Cindric and Horvat added 4 each. For Serbia, Nenadic scored 6 and Zelenovic had 5. In the other match in this group Iceland played really well and beat Sweden 26:24.