Good start: the Russian women's handball team won three victories in the first group stage of the World Cup

The World Women's Handball Championship is taking place in Spain these days.

The Russian national team, which is the current bronze medalist of the tournament and the winner of the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, played the first three matches of the preliminary stage and made it to the main group round.

Ahead of the girls are the struggle for the playoffs and medals.

Over the past four months since the Olympic Games, the team has changed beyond recognition.

Of the 20 people entered the world forum, only six traveled to Japan this summer.

Three more participated in the previous world championship.

The team did not include many leaders of previous years - Anna Vyakhireva, Daria Dmitrieva, Anna Sen, Polina Vedekhina, Anna Sedoikina, Vladlena Bobrovnikova and others.

Almost half of the team are now players under 23 years old.

The Russian national team has also updated its coaching staff.

In September, it was for the first time led by a woman - two-time world champion in 2001 and 2005, Lyudmila Bodnieva.

At the tournament, she will be one of four mentors along with Lyazzat Ushanova (Kazakhstan), Monique Teisterman (Netherlands) and another star of past years Boyana Popovich (Montenegro).

Until last September, Bodnieva did not have independent coaching experience, but she is very familiar with the national team, since she was previously an assistant at the headquarters of her predecessor Alexei Alekseev. The head coach has already achieved her first successes in her post. Before the World Cup, the team won two victories in the selection for the European championship and the same number in friendly matches, including over the powerful Norwegian national team. In two more unofficial meetings with Germany and the Netherlands, the Russians lost with a difference of no more than three goals.

The current world forum in Spain is being held according to a new formula. The number of participants was increased from 24 to 32 teams, which is why a preliminary stage was introduced at the tournament - for a start, the teams were divided into eight quartets, of which three go to the main round. The Russians were in the same group with Cameroon, Poland and Serbia and had to beat at least one of this company.

Bodnieva's wards started with the defeat of the representatives of Africa, and this victory can be called a strong-willed one.

The Russian handball players did not start very well and opened the other's goal only in the sixth minute.

Then the incredible began to happen - the Cameroonians fought back and even took the lead with a score of 6: 4 by the 12th minute, despite the fact that their main star Karishma Eco, who had won the world championship in France as a junior, had not yet scored for them.

Bodnieva even had to take a time-out to reassure the players.

Only after that did the Russian national team play in their strength and scored eight goals in a row.

From that moment on, there could be no doubt about the victory.

By the break, the score was 17: 0, and the match ended with a result of 40:18.

The biggest contribution to beating Cameroon by more than a twofold advantage was made by Yulia Markova, who scored six goals.

In the next match with Poland, there was no longer an underestimation of the rivals, and the Russians immediately took possession of an advantage of four, and then six goals.

The second victory seemed very close, until suddenly Aleksandra Rosyak played out.

The Polish athlete hit the Russian goal four times in a row and reduced the gap to a minimum.

Ekaterina Ilyina helped to return a more comfortable two-goal difference.

The Olympic champion of Rio de Janeiro converted her sixth penalty two and a half minutes before the end.

For the entire match, she did not have a single mistake from the seven-meter mark, while the Poles realized only one of seven such shots.

Soon the Russian national team brought the match to victory with a score of 26:23.

Bodnieva's wards definitely had to win the next meeting with Serbia in order to immediately take the lead with four points in the main group stage.

The Balkan girls also started the tournament with two victories, but they could not oppose anything to the Russians.

If in the first minutes there was still an approximately equal score, then before the break, the Olympic vice-champion scored seven goals in a row, and then added two more.

When the difference in the score became double-digit, the young athlete Ksenia Zakordonskaya herself made her debut for the Russian national team.

The 18-year-old lineman immediately converted the penalty and once again distinguished himself from the game.

The most productive player was Yulia Managarova.

She scored seven goals for the game, which ended with a score of 32:22.

For reaching the quarterfinals, the Russians will fight with Slovenia and Montenegro, and in the last round they will face well-known rivals from France, with whom they have played the last two Olympic finals.

Of the six teams that will enter the group at the next stage, only two will be able to continue the fight.