Croatia beat an undefeated France side 31-28 in front of a sold out Arena Zagreb Thursday night and will now play in the World Handball Final Sunday in Norway vs. the winner of Denmark/Portugal. Croatia led from start to finish and controlled the entire match; taking a 7-goal lead into halftime. It was a dream game for the Croatian side and fans inside of Arena Zagreb in a tournament where they were touted “outsiders”, even on home soil.
The tournament didn’t start out great for the former-Cowboys (not sure why the nickname was dropped) as they lost to Egypt in the preliminary round. However, a winning streak against Cape Verde, Iceland, Slovenia, Hungary and now France have put Croatia in the Final. It will be played in Oslo Norway this Sunday against the winner of the Denmark/Portugal semifinal.
Denmark — as always in handball — will be the favorites to play Croatia. The “red and white dynamite” If it is Denmark, it will be a brutal test for Croatian. Denmark are reigning Olympic gold medalists (Paris) and have won the World Handball title three tournaments in a row (2019, 2021, 2023). They were close to holding three tournament titles simultaneously but lost to France in the 2024 European Final in overtime. That’s how good they are.
looks like it’ll be denmark on sunday
Early line (FanDuel): Croatia +940 … Draw +1260 … Denmark -1450
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Spread: Denmark -6.5
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Over/under: 59.5
Cover and over.
Win or loose, they’re planning a big concert on Trg Ban Jelacic in Zagreb, with Thompson headlining…Monday 2pm local time. Hopefully they’ll be celebrating as champions.
The term “Cowboys” is offensive to Croats, the same way the term “Redskins” are to Native Americans.
They’re thinking of renaming the team the Washington Komunjari.
lol