In the second match of the World Cup in handball, Croatia defeated the Argentine national team with a score of 33:18.
Croatian menu Dagur Sigurdsson decided to make one change before today’s game. He put the pivot back on the scoresheet Verona Načinovićawho did not play the last friendly match against of Sloveniaas well as the first game in the championship.
He replaced Josip Šimićwho is against Bahrain debuted for Croatia at major competitions. He scored one goal and recorded one assist.
Home page seven Croatia has not changed compared to the match against Bahrain. Kuzmanović was in goal, Jelinić and Glavaš were on the wings, Srna, Duvnjak and Martinović were on the outside line, while Šipić was in the pivot position. Šušnja entered the game in defense.
Croatia opened the game slowly, so Argentina led 4:3 after seven minutes of play. Soon, however, everything came into its own. A significantly better defense was played, led by the great Dominik Kuzmanović on goal. With a series of 6:0, Croatia escaped to the first serious advantage of 9:4.
At that moment he excelled Marin Šipićwho scored exactly half of those six goals, and led the attack Luka Cindrić.
Cindrić entered the game earlier than expected due to an injury to the calf of his left foot Domagoj Duvnjak. The captain of the Croatian national team left the field, sat next to him, and was assisted by a physiotherapist. Unfortunately, he went to the dressing room in tears afterwards.
Argentinians scored in the 17th minute for 10:6, and then Croatia made a new 6:0 run and for the first time in the meeting went to a double-digit lead. In the end, they went into halftime with 18:7.
Dominik Kuzmanović stood out with 9 saves with 56% success, Filip Glavaš, Ivan Martinović and Marin Šipić with four goals each, as well as Luka Cindrić with three assists.
The South American national team took advantage of a slightly slower start to the game, reducing the deficit to -8 with a 3:0 series. That woke up the Croatian handball players, who then made a 5:1 series and concluded the question there the winner.
In the end, Croatia won with 33:18and took the first place in the rankings before the decisive duel for the first place against of Egypt. It was led to victory by the brilliant Kuzmanović with 13 saves, while Glavaš and Šipić were the most effective with five goals each. For Argentina, Ramiro Martinez scored three goals.
The meeting with Egypt is scheduled for 20:30 on Sunday 19.01.
(www.jabuk.tv | Photo: Luka Stanzl/Pixsell)
