Game on!
Croatia picked up a huge win over Iceland (32-26) Friday night at Arena Zagreb. The result keeps them in contention for a quarterfinal berth and a victory over Slovenia Sunday will get them there. The Croatian Cowboys will play all games in Zagreb on their current path until the eventual Final of the 2025 World Handball Championships; switching over to Norway.
It was a packed Arena Zagreb (15,600 spectators) Friday as the Croatian crowd rooted on their boys. It’s basically a “must win” game against Slovenia as both Egypt and Iceland are expected to win against Cape Verde and Argentina, respectively. Croatia have a far superior GD on both nations, for the time being.
btw: the manager is Dagur Sigurðsson
First time a non-Croat has managed the handball team ?
Rumours he had a falling out with Cindric who left the team bc of an “injury” (another Livaja, Kalinic situation ?) and that’s he’s taking over Flensburg after this
Aren’t there any capable Croatian managers ? What’s Ivano Balic doing these days after being the assistant coach for a couple years ?
Dont’ appreciate us letting some Iceland dude build up his coaching creds with us just so he can get a pay-day elsewhere
Speaking of Livaja – nice to see him say he’s in touch w Kustic about playing for the NT again – would definitely call him up ahead of Budimir as e.g. – at some point in his life Livaja will mature and “calm down” – maybe that’s happened w/ Rakitic and Gattuso at his side as “father figures” – hopefully Dalic can swallow his pride and give him another chance
Here are the Kuzmanovic highlights / MOTM performance
Those saves where he kicks his leg up to his head level are top drawer – not sure how other teams don’t scout him for this though i.e. fake/dummy shot high corner (so he kicks his leg up) and put it bottom corner (as he’s already committed)
https://x.com/ihfhandball/status/1882924418885943591
We played well in this match, and it was one of our better displays in recent times, however Iceland is no Denmark or France. If we can beat Slovenia we will come first in the group and avoid France in the QF’s and will most likely play Hungary according to the RTL commentators.