Croatia fell 33–25 to Sweden in Malmö in their final preliminary group match of the 2026 European Handball Championship.
With the preliminary round now complete, Croatia will move into the Main Round, where they are set to face Iceland, Switzerland, Slovenia, and Hungary.
Only the top two nations from the group will earn a place in the semifinals, meaning every match will be key as Croatia looks to push deeper into the tournament.
Sweden playing at home were just too good.
Bad night all round with our water polo team losing to Italy 13 – 10 and are out of the semi-finals and medal contention. Next match is against Spain for 5th place.
We never looked good throughout the tournament in attack, especially when the opponents had players excluded. This poor conversation rate when having a player advantage in the end cost us big time.