Croatia Beats Finland in Game 1 of 2023 World Handball Championship Qualifiers

Croatia has thus made a big step toward securing a spot in that competition and plays the return match in Varaždin on Saturday, April 16 at 6 pm.

FINLAND: P. Roslander 0/1, M. Makela 16/46, L. Lindberg 2/2, M. Henriksson 2/4, F. Forss 0/2, V. Gronmark 1/1, B. Helander 1/3 , R. Sundberg – / -, E. Hammarberg 0/1, R. Syrjala 1/2, R. Granlund 5/9, S. Vainionpaa 2/2, S. Sakkinen 1/3, G.Montonen 3/6, F. Karlsson 3/6, O. Norlund 0/1, coach: Ola Lindgren (Swe)

CROATIA: D. Kuzmanović 1/3, M. Šego 12/32, M. Marić 0/3, D. Duvnjak 1/1, I. Karačić 1/3, M. Maraš 0/2, M. Mamić 2/2 , L. Cindrić 6/8, V. Matanović 2/4, T. Lučin 2/3, H. Jaganjac 0/1, L. Šušnja – / -, D. Ćavar 4/6, F. Glavaš 8/10, L. L. Klarica 3/8, M. Jelinić 5/7, selector: Hrvoje Horvat

Of the 18 players brought to Finland, coach Hrvoje Horvat left Matej Mandic and Veron Nacinovic in the stands. It is worth reminding that Croatia was left without David Mandić, Željko Musa, Zvonimir Srna, Ivan Čupić, Luka Šebetić, Marin Šipić, and Ivan Martinović before these two qualifying matches due to injuries.

Croatia opened the match with the following line-up: Marin Šego in goal, Marin Jelinić and Filip Glavaš on the wings, Marino Marić as the pivot, and Domagoj Duvnjak, Luka Cindrić and Luka Lovre Klarica on the outside positions. There was only one change in defense-attack, Marino Marić – Leon Šušnja.

Croatia started calmly and used four of the first five attacks to take the 2:4 lead after only six minutes. 

Domagoj Duvnjak pushed forward, resulting in a series of mistakes for Finland. Thus, in the 12th minute, Croatia doubled its advantage to 4:8. After the first quarter, they could have been up by 8 or 9 points, but it was 6:10. 

Horvat started with a series of substitutions. Igor Karačić, Vlado Matanović, and Tin Lučin entered, and Marko Mamić also defended. Croatia made good use of Finland’s exclusions, and at the end of the 20th minute, Croatia was up by 6 goals – 7:13. However, Croatia went without a goal for five minutes, and Finland was helpless against Marin Šego (10 saves).

At halftime, Croatia was up by seven goals (9:16), and 8 Croatia players were among the scorers.

Finland did well in the second half. They came to minus 5 with two quick goals and forced Croatia to get serious. Croatia responded with two goals by Filip Glavas, one from seven meters, and quickly calmed down the growing ambitions of the hosts.

After 13 minutes of play, Croatia went up by 10 (15:25) with the first goal by Marko Mamic. As expected, Horvat started several new changes to give all players the opportunity in the match. The young Dominik Kuzmanović was in goal. Croatia’s advantage grew from attack to attack until the final 21:34. Along with the excellent Marin Šego, who had 12 saves, the top scorer for Croatia was Filip Glavaš, with eight goals from 10 attempts. Luka Cindrić scored six and was chosen as the best player for Croatia. 

Source: HRS

To follow the latest sports news in Croatia, follow TCN’s dedicated page.

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

the fields marked with * are required

Email: *
First name:
Last name:
Gender:	Male Female
Country:
Birthday:	[DD] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 [MM] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 [YYYY] 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Please don't insert text in the box below!