The Croatian handball team suffered a defeat in the match of the third round of the World Championship.
The handball players of Egypt celebrated with the result in the match for the first place in the group 28:24so they will transfer four points to the second round, and Croatia two. With this defeat, Croatia’s path to the quarter-finals is much more difficult. The coach commented on the match at the press conference Dagur Sigurdsson and national team member Ivan Martinović.
Congratulations to Egypt. It wasn’t our day. We played good defense, but we had to change defense-attack too much and that denied us counter attacks. We didn’t find a rhythm in the attack, we struggled in the 6v6 game, but also the 6v5. I’m disappointed about that. We had a lot of good, clean chances that we didn’t take, and there were also technical errors. We got back into the game a few times, but we didn’t make the final step. Disappointingly, but we must recover and come back stronger, said Sigurdsson in the introduction and continued:
It always is difficult when you enter the second round with only two points. Sometimes incredible things can happen. We can’t change it anymore, we won’t get these points back, we have to fight for the next ones. I think we have a good chance against everyone, but we have to play better.
A new shock for Croatia: Cindrić drops out of the World Championship
O To Luka Cindrićwho was surprisingly dropped from the list, said: I’m not a doctor, but it’s hard to expect him to come back. He will try, he will do his best, we will see if it will be possible. Was there any conflict between us? I heard about it from other journalists, but there is nothing there. We are on good terms.
Martinovic stated: Egypt deserved to win and I congratulate them. We didn’t take our chanceswe missed too much, their goalkeeper was very good. We took some shots that were too difficult, we ran poorly in defense. We must continue, not give up, everything is still possible. Thanks to the fans.
(www.jabuka.tv | Photo: Luka Stanzl/PIXSELL)
