Montenegro national handball team
| Montenegro | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Information | |||
| Nickname |
Zlatni lavovi (The Golden Lions) | ||
| Association | Handball Federation of Montenegro | ||
| Coach | Dragan Đukić | ||
| Assistant coach | Milorad Davidović | ||
| Most caps | Igor Marković (50) | ||
| Colours | |||
| |||
| Results | |||
| World Championship | |||
| Appearances | 1 (First in 2013) | ||
| Best result | 22nd (2013) | ||
| European Championship | |||
| Appearances | 3 (First in 2008) | ||
| Best result | 12th (2008) | ||
| Last updated on Unknown. | |||
The Montenegro national handball team represents Montenegro in international handball competitions. The national team was formed in 2006 recently after the Montenegrin independence.
Montenegro played their first official match at 3 January 2007 in Vantaa and won against Finland (28:26).
Since then, Montenegro successfully qualified for four big competitions – once for the World Cup (2013) and for the European Championship in 2008, 2014 and 2016.
The head coach is Ljubomir Obradović.
History and records
The national side first appeared in the Euro 2008 Qualifiers, which started in January 2007. After the great success in the qualifying matches, Montenegro participated at the European Championship 2008, where they finished in the second group phase.
Year later, Montenegrin players didn't succeed to qualify for World Championship 2009 and after that, there was a crisis in the results of national team.
New era of great results for Montenegro started at 2012. After surprisingly win against Sweden in the qualifiers, Montenegro placed for the World Championship 2013.
In June 2013, Montenegro sensational eliminated Germany in the final round of qualifiers for the European Championship 2014. At the Championship, Montenegro was eliminated in the first phase.
Two years later, Montenegrin team appeared at European Championship 2016, but finished after first phase of competition, without any win in three matches.
National team matches
| Tournament | Matches | Wins | Draws | Loss | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Championship | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 179 | 204 |
| European Championship | 12 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 291 | 352 |
| Qualifying matches EC/WC | 50 | 27 | 3 | 20 | 1381 | 1418 |
| OVERALL | 69 | 28 | 4 | 37 | 1851 | 1974 |
Updated: November 24, 2016
Records
- Largest victory
- 41:27,
Montenegro – 
Finland, 6 January 2007, Budva
- Largest defeat
- 39:23,
Poland – Montenegro, 24 January 2011, Stavanger
- Highest home attendance
- 4,000, Montenegro –
Sweden 20:18, 17 June 2012, Podgorica
- Highest away attendance
- 8,100,
Slovakia – Montenegro 36:21, 12 June 2011, Košice
Competitive record
World Championship
The national team of Montenegro made their first appearance at the World Cup in 2013, from their 3rd qualifying attempt. Their first World Cup match was played on 12 January 2013 against Argentina in Granollers, Spain.
| World Championship | Qualification | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Pos. | Pld | W | D | L | Pld | W | D | L | |
 2009 | Did not qualify | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| 2011 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
 2013 | 22nd | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | |
 2015 | Did not qualify | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||
 2017 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||||||
| Total | 7 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 14 | 8 | 0 | 6 | ||
European Championship
Debut on the European Championship, Montenegrin national team made after first attempt.
They participated at the Euro 2008 and made successful appearance in their first match against Russia (25:25). They qualified for the Main Phase of the European Championship.
Their second appearance was in 2014, after Montenegro sensational eliminated Germany during the qualifiers. At the tournament, Montenegro lost all three games, with elimination after the first phase.
Montenegro hoped for a better result in 2016, but it was pretty much deja vu from two years ago as they once again lost all three games and finished in last place in their group, as well as last place in the tournament claiming 16th place out of 16 teams.
| European Championship | Qualification | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Pos. | Pld | W | D | L | Pld | W | D | L | |
 2008 | 12th | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | |
 2010 | Did not qualify | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |||||
 2012 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||||||
 2014 | 16th | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | |
| 2016 | 16th | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| Total | 12 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 34 | 19 | 2 | 13 | ||
List of official matches
During its history, Montenegrin national handball team played against 31 various countries.
Most matches, Montenegro played against Sweden (7), Israel (6), Romania (4), Russia (4), Germany (3) and Poland (3).
Updated till 24 November 2016
| Opponent | G | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 66 | 58 | +8 |
 Argentina | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 28 | -2 |
 Belarus | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 75 | 86 | -11 |
.svg.png){kind=small} Belgium | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 72 | 60 | +12 |
 Brazil | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 25 | 26 | -1 |
| Croatia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 46 | 63 | -17 |
 Czech Republic | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 48 | 52 | -4 |
 Chile | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 31 | +4 |
| Denmark | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 52 | 62 | -10 |
| Finland | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 69 | 53 | +16 |
| France | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 32 | -12 |
 Germany | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 79 | 81 | -2 |
 Greece | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 29 | -3 |
 Hungary | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 27 | 32 | -5 |
 Iceland | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 48 | 56 | -8 |
 Italy | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 26 | +2 |
 Israel | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 169 | 158 | +11 |
 South Korea | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 27 | 30 | -3 |
 Latvia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 63 | 58 | +5 |
 Netherlands | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 65 | 60 | +5 |
| Norway | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 22 | 27 | -5 |
| Poland | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 66 | 100 | -34 |
 Portugal | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 63 | 55 | +8 |
 Romania | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 118 | 116 | +2 |
 Russia | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 111 | 135 | -24 |
| Serbia | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 44 | 48 | -4 |
| Slovakia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 46 | 71 | -25 |
 Slovenia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 29 | 31 | -2 |
| Sweden | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 191 | 235 | -44 |
 Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 25 | 27 | -2 |
 Turkey | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 70 | 57 | +13 |
| 31 Country | 69 | 28 | 4 | 37 | 1851 | 1974 | -123 |
Team
Current squad
This is the squad for the 2016 European Men's Handball Championship.[1]
Head coach: Ljubomir Obradović
|
- Uniforms
1st: red/red (GK: yellow)
2nd: white/white (GK: red)
3rd: black/black (GK: blue)
Technical staff
- Coach: /
- Assistant Coach: Milorad Davidović
- Team Official: Petar Kapisoda
- Physiotherapist: Bojan Milošević
- Physiotherapist: Bojan Vlaisavljević
Head coaches
Since independence, Montenegro was led by six different coaches.
| Coach | From | To | Record* | Championship | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Pero Milošević | October 2006 | June 2007 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 87.50 | None |
| Ranko Popović | August 2007 | November 2009 | 16 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 31.25 | EC 2008 |
 Kasim Kamenica | November 2009 | April 2010 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 50.00 | |
| Miodrag Popović | April 2010 | March 2011 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 25.00 | |
| Zoran Kastratović | May 2011 | February 2014 | 24 | 10 | 0 | 14 | 41.67 | WC 2013, EC 2014 |
| Ljubomir Obradović | March 2014 | November 2016 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 30.77 | EC 2016 |
| Milorad Davidović (caretaker) | November 2016 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.00 | ||
* Data is only for official matches (qualifiers, European Championship, World Championship).
Notable former players
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See also
- List of official matches of the Montenegro handball team
- Handball Federation of Montenegro
- Montenegro women's national handball team