Croatia opened the EURO Handball against Spain and ultimately defeated the overwhelming favorites to win the tournament
SPAIN – CROATIA 29:39
SPAIN: Pered de Vargas, A. Fernandez, D. Dujšebajev, Pecina, Casado, A. Dujšebajev, Abello; Hernandez, Migallon, Odriozola (D. Fernandez), Figueras (Serdio), Canellas, Gurri, Maqueda, Terrafeta, Garciandia
CROATIA: Mandić, Jelinić, Srna, Načinović, Cindrić, Martinović, Šoštarić; Ivić, Mihić, Glavaš, Šipić, Lučin, Mamić, Duvnjak, Karačić, Klarica
Croatia has a solid team on paper, but as they played the game against Spain, it can be said that Croatia is more dangerous than ever. Croatia opened the first half phenomenally. Croatia led by six goals, but towards the end of the first half Spain woke up and started scoring goals from outside positions. In the end, Croatia went to the break with four points, and the score was 18:14.
In the second half, Spain went with a player higher in the field, but they quickly put the goalkeeper back in the goal. But Croatia scored four quick goals and got to an eight-goal lead. Spain had a time-out after just a little over 3 minutes of play in the second half. After that, the goal-for-goal game started and thus there was an eight to nine-goal lead for Croatia.
In the last part of the game, Spain began to lose the outside line, which had several mistakes. Croatia took advantage of that and separated themselves into ten goals. Croatia played phenomenally, both in defense and attack. In the end, Croatia won 39:29. The runner-up is broken. And how long will Croatia be able to play this way? We’ll see. May they have luck.
Interestingly, Croatia and Spain have met each other in three different sports, in all three sports they are playing as part of the European Championship (each sport on its own), and both were played in the first round. Croatia has two wins out of three possible matches, and the football players will do their job in June in Germany.
