The Croatia men’s handball team played a preparatory match against Spain in Porec on Tuesday as part of the EHF EURO Cup. It was a replay of the Euro final in January when Spain beat Croatia 22:20 and took the European champion title.
The World Championships in Egypt is just around the corner, and the world’s best handball players will kick off the competition on January 13. As the corona pandemic has changed a lot, some national teams will briefly stop their preparations for the World Championships this week to play their qualifiers for EURO 2022.
Some national teams, such as Croatia, Spain, Hungary, and Slovakia, are playing in the EHF EURO Cup. The EHF Cup is a preparatory competition in which teams that have already qualified for the 2022 European Championships participate – Slovakia and Hungary as hosts and Croatia and Spain as finalists in the 2020 Euros.
If it weren’t for COVID-19, these matches would have been played in March this year. However, as the Olympic qualifiers were planned at the same time, this week was left as the only possible option to play.
Croatia hosted Spain at Žatika hall in Poreč on Tuesday. For both national teams, it was a great opportunity to test their form and see how ready the players are after four days of preparations for the World Champs.
Croatia’s Igor Karačić and Luka Stepančić had to cancel their participation in the preparations due to injuries. Marin Šego and Manuel Štrlek are still in the process of recovery, and Domagoj Duvnjak and Luka Cindrić just finished the Champions League and are fatigued.
Spain coach Jordi Ribera brought his strongest side to Porec – and that means two great goalkeepers Gonzalo Perez de Vargas and Rodrigo Coralles. There is also Jorge Maqueda, Alex and Daniel Dujshebaev, Raul Entrerrios, Dani Sarmiento, Ferran Sole, and others. This national team won its first European title in Croatia in 2018 and defended it two years later.
Croatia v. Spain Recap
Spain was up 0:2 for the first five minutes of the game, before Croatia finally scored their first goal in the 5th minute for 1:2. It was 2:3 for Spain in the 9th minute. Croatia equalized for 3:3 just before the 10th. It was 4:4 one minute later.
Croatia took the lead for the first time in the 12th minute – 5:4. Mandic scored for 7:6 in the 15th.
Croatia was up by 3 in the 17th minute – 10:7. By the 25th, Croatia was only up by 2 – 14:12, and with two minutes to go in the first half, it was 16:14. Croatia went into halftime with +3 – 17:14.
Croatia started the second half with a +4 lead – 20:16 in the 35th minute. It was 22:17 two minutes later!
Croatia achieved their biggest lead of the game in the 41st minute – they were up by 6 for 24:18! And +7 in the 44th!
In the 50th minute, Croatia led 28:23. With five minutes to go, it was 29:25. Spain reduced their lead slightly in the minutes that followed, but with less than two minutes to go, Croatia was up by 2 – 30:28. With 30 seconds to go, Duvnjak scored for 31:28, which was the final score of the game.
Croatia and Spain will play the return match on January 9 at 6:00 pm in Madrid.
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