Serbia U20 women travel to Portugal for the European Championship

Serbia's under-20 women's water polo team has travelled to Portugal. Oeiras hosts the European Championship from August 1 to August 7. Serbia competes in Group F with Switzerland and Turkey.

Head coach Dejan Bozic selected fifteen players from seven clubs. Seven members of the squad represent Crvena zvezda. The roster contains players born between 2007 and 2009.

Serbia opens against Switzerland on Sunday at 13:15 Serbian time. The second group match follows against Turkey on Monday at 14:45. Both results determine Serbia's route through the classification system.

Fifteen players form the travelling squad

Jovana Radonjic and Nadja Kulic are the two players born in 2007. Radonjic plays for Patras, while Kulic represents Palilula. Andrea Lazovic and Nadja Milenkovic share the same birth year at Crvena zvezda.

Eight selected players were born in 2008. Elena Cuk arrives from Szeged, and Vjera Bulajic plays for Jug. Danica Balac and Nika Ratkovic represent Palilula in domestic competition.

Jana Jankovic, Una Jelenic and Irina Trbanos are also from the 2008 generation. All three play for Crvena zvezda. Helena Klikovac adds another Zvezda player from the same age group.

The youngest group contains three players born in 2009. Tara Zagar represents Vojvodina, Lena Petkovic plays for Crvena zvezda and Natalija Andjelkovic comes from Partizan. They complete the fifteen-player list.

The roster therefore includes experience from Serbian and foreign clubs. Patras, Szeged and Jug provide three players based outside Serbia. Four domestic clubs supply the remaining members of the team.

The official draw placed Serbia in Group F during February. Turkey and Switzerland completed the three-team section. Serbia therefore knew both opening opponents several months before travelling. The final roster announcement added the fifteen players assigned to those matches.

Serbian women's water polo players pose together during a national-team training camp.

Seven Crvena zvezda players join the national group

Crvena zvezda supplies the largest club group in the squad. Lazovic, Milenkovic, Jankovic and Jelenic form its first four representatives. Trbanos, Klikovac and Petkovic complete the group of seven.

Several of those players have shared domestic matches and training sessions. Their club connection gives them familiar passing and defensive habits. National-team work then joins those habits with players from six other clubs.

Palilula contributes Kulic, Balac and Ratkovic. Vojvodina and Partizan add one player each. The mix gives coach Bozic a squad drawn from several Serbian development programmes.

Radonjic, Cuk and Bulajic bring daily experience from teams outside Serbia. They return with different coaching routines and competitive schedules. The national camp combines those backgrounds before the opening match.

The selected players cover goalkeeping and outfield roles across the final roster. The announcement names every traveller and current club. It also confirms Bozic as the head coach for the tournament.

Seven Crvena zvezda players form almost half of Serbia's travelling group. Palilula provides three more names. Five players arrive from Patras, Szeged, Jug, Vojvodina and Partizan. That distribution shows the exact club base behind the national selection.

Switzerland opens Serbia's Group F schedule

The match against Switzerland begins Serbia's two-game group programme. It is scheduled for Sunday afternoon by Serbian time. Turkey provides the second opponent less than two days later.

Group F contains only three national teams. Each side therefore plays two matches before the next stage. Every result affects the final position inside the group.

Serbia enters the championship in the event's second division. The other second-division teams are divided across Groups C, D, E and F. Each group contains three sides.

The four group winners enter crossover matches after a separate draw. Their opponents come from the lower positions in the top division. A crossover victory gives access to the quarter-finals.

Second-placed teams from Groups C to F enter a round-robin group for positions thirteen to sixteen. Third-placed teams follow the same system for positions seventeen to twenty. The format keeps every team active after group play.

Oeiras brings together twenty European teams

Twenty national teams entered the women's under-20 championship. The top eight teams form Groups A and B. The remaining twelve sides compete in four groups of three.

The age category changed from under-19 to under-20 for this edition. Serbia's list reflects that wider limit. Its players come from three birth years rather than one single generation.

Oeiras stages the tournament across seven days. Group matches come first, followed by crossovers and classification games. The final positions are decided before the closing day.

Serbia travelled before the opening weekend and announced the complete roster. The schedule confirms Switzerland and Turkey as the first opponents. Later fixtures depend on the two group results.

This squad belongs to a different age category than Serbia's recent Zagreb team. It contains different players and a different head coach. The group now begins its own European event in Portugal.

The competition uses one event with two connected divisions. Groups A and B contain the eight leading teams from the previous ranking cycle. Groups C to F contain twelve more teams. Crossover matches connect both levels before the quarter-finals and classification rounds.