The Croatia men’s handball team began its World Championship campaign against Egypt in Group G on Friday. The USA surprised Morocco by winning 28:27 in the first game of this group.
Egypt is the most difficult test in the group for Croatia as the strongest African national team and one of the best national teams outside of Europe. Croatia had played against African national teams 13 times and recorded 13 victories before this game.
It was the fifth match between Croatia and Egypt at the World Championships. They played for the first time in 1995 when Croatia won (30:16). The second meeting took place in Portugal in 2003, when Croatia was better in the second round (29:23), followed by victories in 2013 in the group (24:20) and in 2017 in the round of 16 (21:19 ).
Match recap
60′ Egypt beats Croatia 31:22. This is one of Croatia’s worst defeats to open the World Championships. Croatia plays the USA next on Sunday at 20:30.
59′ Šipić scores for 30:22
58′ Egypt makes it 30:21
53′ Glavaš scores a penalty for 29:21
52′ And then it was 28:19
50′ Croatia calls a timeout
44′ Šipić scores for -7
43′ Egypt went up by 8 goals
42′ Egypt takes the biggest lead yet – +7
40′ Egypt goes to +6
37′ Penalty for the Croatia bench, Ivano Balić loses his temper, two minutes for Croatia
35′ Karačić scores
35′ Kuzmanović defends, but Egypt goes up to +5
33′ Egypt scored for +4 after three and a half minutes of play
32′ Croatia misses an opportunity to reduce the result to two goals, Musa is excluded
31′ Šipić scores
30′ First half ends 16:12 for Egypt
28′ Mahmoud scores for Egypt, Musa returns to -4
27′ Karačić scores his second goal, Egypt leads 15:11
25′ Sebetic scores
24′ Two minutes for Martinović, Egypt uses an extra player, and Mahmoud scores
23′ Egypt scores, as does Martinović
22′ Šipić scores
19′ Egypt goes to +6, but Karačić also scores
17′ Two minutes for Egypt, Y.Elderaa is sent off
16′ Karačić forces a penalty. Glavaš scores again, but so does Egypt
15′ Two quick goals from Egypt, who goes to +5, Croatia calls a time-out
11′ Glavaš scores for 6:4, Mohamed retaliates and Egypt leads 7:4
8′ Martinović scores for 4:2
5′ First exclusion, Duvnjak gets two minutes
5′ Shebib brings Egypt 3:1
4′ Egypt made it 2:1
2′ Egypt was successful in the first attack, and Filip Glavaš countered for 1:1
1′ The match has started! The judging pair are Spaniards Garcia Ignacio and Marin Andreu
Croatia has participated in the World Championships since 1995 and has not missed a single competition so far. Croatia has won five medals – one gold (2003), three silvers (1995, 2005, 2009), and one bronze (2013) at the previous World Championships.
This is Egypt’s 17th appearance at the World Championship. Its greatest success is fourth place in France in 2001. At the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Egypt also finished in fourth place.
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