Two times Olympic Champion (1996, 2004), Croatia, reinforced with Ivano Balic, injured after the first game in the preliminary group, defetated in the quarter final the European Champion, Denmark (26:24). On 14th August, in the preliminary round, the squad coached by Claude Onesta won over Metlicic, Dominikovic, Vori and the others, 23:19. That victory doesn´t count anymore, even if it boosted the moral of the French players, which proved themselves that Croatia can be beaten if you don´t let them to force you to play slow and with a lot of interruptions in attack.
In the other semifinal, Iceland (32:30 over Poland) will play against Spain (29:24 over South Korea).
The last games France - Croatia
14/08/2008 (OG 2008): France - Croatia 23:19
26/01/2008 (EC 2008): Croatia - France 24:23
30/01/2007 (WCh 2007) : France - Croatia 21:18
04/02/2006 (ECh 2006) : France - Croatia 29:23
29/10/2005 (Supercup) : France - Croatia 33:26
05/02/2005 (WCh 2005) : Croatia - France 35:32
29/10/2003 (Supercup) : Croatia - France 23:22
25/01/2003 (WCh 2003) : Croatia - France 23:22
27/01/2002 (ECh 2002) : France - Croatia 29:27
13/09/2001 (Mediterranean Games) : Croatia - France 32:26
27/01/2000 (ECh 2000) : Croatia - France 26:26
06/06/1998 (ECh 1998) : France - Croatia 30:28
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