Serbia’s European title defence continued on the right track after they beat Russia 15-5 at an electrifying Kombank Arena, in Belgrade, on Monday.

A more balanced quarter-final was anticipated.

In fact, it appeared as though the Russian team would provide Serbia with their first stern test with the score at the end of the opening session only 3-2 in favour of the holders.

However, the gap started to widen in the remaining three quarters with Dusan Mandic, in particular, showing class and leading his team in attack.

The 21-year-old capped his superb match with three goals.

Serbia’s opponents in this evening semi-final will be Greece who booked their place in the last four after a 6-2 win over Spain.

Spain were coming from four successive wins but Greece continued to show signs of improvement in their bid to finish among the medal winners for the first time in this tournament.

Malta-Slovakia

Today’s programme at the Kombank Arena starts with the lower-half ranking match between Malta and Slovakia.

Karl Izzo’s national team produced their best performance in Belgrade on Monday when losing to the more-quoted Romania with a respectable 12-7 scoreline.

Slovakia are proving to be stubborn opponents in the championships, only losing 10-5 to Serbia in the Last 16 round and going down in a penalty shoot-out to Germany in another classification match earlier this week.

Results
9-16 places: Turkey vs France 9-14; Georgia vs Netherlands 15-16.
Quarter-finals: Italy vs Montenegro 7-10; Hungary vs Croatia 8-5.

Playing today
13-16: 9.00 Malta vs Slovakia.
9-12: 10.30 Romania vs Germany.
5-8: 18.45 Spain vs Russia.
Semi-final: 20.15 Greece vs Serbia.