Croatian team overcame a very rocky first half on Coach Babić’s EURO debut against Belarus
On the first day of the EFH EURO 2016 Handball championship taking place in Poland, Croatia played against Belarus on January 15, 2016. It was coach Babić’s EFH EURO debut and fans were anxious to see how the team will play, especially since many young players were added to the team and the last preparatory games did not look good. The final score was 27: 21 for Croatia, but the win was not as easy as the result would suggest.
Croatian players were struggling throughout the first half with Belarus leading until coach Željko Babic replaced Duvnjak and Kopljar. Croatia then finally found it rhythm and with nine minutes to go, equalized at 10:10. Belarus kept a narrow lead, but Croatia managed to equalize to finish the first half with the score 15:15.
Four minutes into the second half it was Ivan Čupić who granted Croatia the lead for the first time giving the team more confidence and bringing them back on track. , Even though Belarus remained close for the rest of the game, in the end, they only managed to record the closest defeat against Croatia in their third mutually EHF EURO encounter.
Croatia will play against Norway in the second round of their group stage on Sunday, January 17, 2016. Kick-off is at 18:15 CET.
Photos: Karol Bartnik, EHF EURO 2016 Poland official website
