Croatia makes it to the main round, next matches against FYR Macedonia, France and Poland
Even before the EHF EURO 2016 handball championship started, there were many different opinions in terms of how Croatia will perform considering head coach Željko Babić introduced many new players. First game against Belarus was not really an indicator of how much this team can do, and the slip up against Norway in the second game gave the critics enough material to complain for a week starting with the bad defense, the bad form of our main goalkeeper Mirko Alilović, lack of teamwork etc. On January 19, 2016, in the last game of the first stage, Croatia played against Island and once again reminded us why it deserves to be among the best teams on the planet. Croatia cruised past the 2008 Olympic silver medalists Iceland 37:28.
Not only was it the best match we’ve seen from our national team so far in this championship, it was also the only game we’ve seen in a while where we were not biting our nails until the very last second. Croatia controlled the game from the first whistle, taking a double figure lead at 13-3 just 20 minutes into the game.
Leading comfortably throughout the match, Croatian team did allow their opponents to soften the score on few instances, but it also gave the younger players a chance to feel the atmosphere. With the final score 37:28 Croatian team broke their almost ten-year-old record for most goals scored in a competitive match. Back in 2006 at the EHF EURO, they had beaten Serbia & Montenegro 34:30.
Croatia is entering the main round of EHF EURO 2016 as the second ranked team in Group B (Norway was 1st) and will carry 2 points to the next stage of the competition. Croatia’s real form will be tested in the next round since we will be playing against Macedonia (tonight’s surprise winner over Serbia with a last second goal), Poland, and of course, France.
Photos HRS Facebook
