The young handball team from Montenegro faced a defeat against Israel, ending with a score of 33:29 in the playoff for positions 17 to 24 at the European Under-18 Championship held in Podgorica.

This marks their first loss in the playoffs and the third overall in the tournament, alongside two draws.

In the newly created group K, Montenegro is set to compete against Poland on Thursday, but it seems increasingly challenging to avoid ending up in one of the last three spots, which would result in relegation to the B division.

Following the match against Poland, the Montenegrin players will play two more playoff games, and they will need to secure victories in both to reach their objective.

The match against Israel started evenly, with the Montenegrin national team holding the lead until the 15th minute when Ćorović scored to make it 9:8, marking their last advantage of the game.

A significant decline in performance ensued, with mistakes on both sides, allowing Israel to extend their lead to 29:20 by the 12th minute.

By halftime, the score was 21:14, indicating that the match was almost decided in favor of the opponents.

The beginning of the second half showed a glimmer of hope for Montenegro as they narrowed the gap to “minus three” at 22:19 in the 38th minute, but they could not close it any further.

Dražen Peruničić topped the scoring for Montenegro with nine goals, while Vuk Lalošević contributed five.

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