The Croatia handball team met Japan in their second game of Group B at the World Championship in Munich, reports Gol.hr on January 13, 2019.
After the Croatia men’s handball team opened the 2019 World Handball Championship with a major victory against Iceland, they faced Japan at 16:30 on Sunday.
Croatia entered the game as the favorite over Japan, and it wasn’t hard to see why. Already by the 5th minute, Croatia was up 3:1, though Šego did have to make some good saves in goal.
It was Vranković and Štrlek to break Japan for 6:1 in the 8th minute and Duvnjak lobbed one across the entire court for 7:1.
Japan finally got their second goal in the 13th minute and continued with a series of goals for 10:6 in the 15th.
With Šego’s excellent goalkeeping, Japan really wasn’t able to do much – Horvat scored for 13:7 and Karačić scored for 14:7. Japan, however, was finally able to come back to -5.
Bičanić and Karačić scored for 18:12 in the 30th minute, and at the half, the score was 18:13 for Croatia.
Croatia continued strong in the second half, and by the 40th minute, Croatia was up by 10 – and better yet, with the help of Mandić, Croatia was up by 11 in the 49th minute.
Croatia did not fail to keep the big advantage in the remaining 10 minutes and ended the game with a final result of 35:27. Croatia has thus secured their second win in Group B of the World Championship. Zlatko Horvat was named the player of the match.
Croatia will play Macedonia on Monday, January 14th, for their third game of Group B, followed by Bahrain on the 16th and Spain to finish off the group on January 17th.
Bravo, Croatia!
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