Croatia Handball Departs for Montpellier, Olympic Qualifiers Begin Friday

The Croatia men’s handball team has completed three short days of preparation ahead of the Olympic qualifying tournament hosted by Montpellier from March 12 to 14. This is a new challenge for Croatia that ensures a spot in Tokyo at the Olympic Games this summer. 

New coach Hrvoje Horvat and his professional staff had only a short time to prepare for the competition in France, refreshing the players who competed in several matches recently and preparing the others who have played less.

The schedule in Montpellier is hellish. In three days, the national team will face three extremely difficult rivals; the first against the best national team of all time, and the host – France – on Friday, the always improving Portugal on Saturday, and a clash against one of the best African national teams on Sunday – Tunisia.

Due to COVID-19, the World Handball Federation has allowed each national team 20 players. Up to 16 can be on the player list for each match, and five changes are possible. 

As it is known, Hrvoje Horvat had 21 players at his disposal during these short preparations. Since he has the most numbers in the outside positions, he decided to drop Matej Hrstić. The valuable member of PPD Zagreb thus stays at home. 

List of Croatia national handball team members:

1. MARIN ŠEGO – MONTPELLIER HB
2. IVAN PEŠIĆ – HC MEŠKOV BREST
3. MATE ŠUNJIĆ – US IVRY HANDBALL
4. IVAN ČUPIĆ – RK VARDAR 1961
5. ZLATKO HORVAT – RK METALURG SKOPJE
6. MANUEL ŠTRLEK – TELEKOM VESZPREM HC
7. DAVID MANDIĆ – RK PPD ZAGREB
8. ŽELJKO MUSA – SC MAGDEBURG
9. MARINO MARIĆ – MT MELSUNGEN
10. ILIJA BROZOVIĆ – TSV HANNOVER -BURGDORF
11. KREŠIMIR KOZINA – FRISCH AUP GOPPINGEN
12. LUKA CINDRIĆ – BARCELONA
13. DOMAGOJ DUVNJAK – THW KIEL
14. IGOR KARAČIĆ – HC LOMZA VIVA KIELCE
15. MARKO MAMIĆ – SCDHFK LEIPZIG
16. HALIL JAGANJAC – RK NEXE
17. IVAN MARTINOVIĆ – HC HANNOVER -BURGDORF
18. DOMAGOJ PAVLOVIĆ – MT MELSUNGEN
19. LUKA ŠEBETIĆ – TREMBLAY EN FRANCE HANDBALL
20. ŠIME IVIĆ – HC ERLANGEN

The Croatia national handball team has been to the Olympic Games five times so far and won gold in Atlanta and Athens.

The Croatia handball team travels to France on Thursday.

Source: HRS

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