January 22, 2025 – Croatia opened the main round of the 2025 World Men’s Handball Championship with a dominant victory against Cape Verde.
After two wins and one loss in the first round, Croatia defeated Cape Verde 44:24 tonight, thus keeping their hopes alive of advancing further in the tournament.
Sigurdsson’s side was not in danger at any point of the game. They were already up by 3 goals in the seventh minute, +5 in the 13th, and after Cape Verde reduced the deficit to 8:11 in the 15th minute, Croatia had a massive 8:0 run, which brought their lead to double digits for the first time.
Cape Verde reduced the deficit to -8 with three consecutive goals, but Croatia scored five consecutive goals by halftime and went into the break with a 24:11 lead. Mateo Maraš scored six goals, Filip Glavaš five, and Marin Šipić four, while Ivan Pešić made seven saves.
Croatia easily increased their lead in the second half, especially thanks to Mario Šoštarić, who came on for Glavaš and scored nine goals. He was the top scorer, while the best player of the match was Ivan Pešić with 14 saves and a 37% success rate. Ivano Pavlović stood out with seven assists, Luka Lovre Klarica with four goals and four assists, and Tin Lučin with four goals and five assists.
Croatia broke its own record for the number of goals scored in a single World Championship match tonight – 44. Until tonight, it was 43 goals scored against Bahrain at the 2023 World Championship.
The next round is a key match against Iceland, scheduled for Friday at 20:30.