Les Blues reached the quarter final of the tournament due to a win over Croatia. In the end it was 23:19, after a very balanced game, approached with more cleverness by les Blues. The next opponent for France will be Spain, on Saturday .
Croatia´s coach, Lino Cervar, has a favourite saying: "A handball game is won by defence and lost by attack. " The French philosophy of approaching handball is based also on a strong and flexible defence. That´s why every dispute France - Croatia is all about defence. And it couldn´t be different this evening in China. One can say after we saw the players of both teams defending like crazy and trying hard to break through the defence, that even if France and Croatia are among the best in the world, they performed not at all well. But sometimes top level handball is not all the time about tricks and spectacular goals.
Sensational can be also a great block in the defence, a steal who leads to a fastbreak, an incredible save of the goalkeeper and even the fact that the players are still capable to assist the pivot when the defense in front of him let no spaces.
Returning to the game, the fight in the defence influenced the attack. Unbelivable, but true, both teams defended so well, that after 9 minutes the scoreboard showed 2:1 for the French team! But Nikola and his teammates were the one who controlled the first half, leading with three goals (6:3/15., 7:4/16.) und and even four (9:5/21.) With their greatest superstar Ivano Balic only on the bench, because of an injury, the Croatians lost also Petar Metlicic, but for another reason. The Right Back player, alread with two times two minutes suspension, got the third two minutes suspension in the last second of the firdt half and with it also the red card. Practically, the referees were too harsh on him, punishing him for a fault to Abalo that didn´t took place. The first half ended 11:9 for France.
In the second half, Lackovic, Dzomba and the others managed to equalise, 15:15 with 15 minutes to go and to took the lead for the first time in the match, 17:16, four minutes later. But Claude Onesta reacted fastly and moved Nikola from the left side to the right side of the defence, where his team was vulnerable and the problem was solved. With seven minutes to go, both sides were even 18:18, but some beautiful actions converted in goals by the brothers Gille and Guigou gave their squad an excellent margin: 22:18 with one minute to go, and that was decisive. In the end, every team scored once, but the winner was only one: France.
Statistics
France - Croatia 23:19 (11:9)
France : Omeyer (11 saves), Karaboué - Fernandez (2/1), Dinart (1), Burdet, G. Gille (2), B. Gille (7), Narcisse (4), Girault (2/1), Karabatic (1), Kempé, Abati (1), Abalo, Guigou (3/1).
Croatia : Losert (8 saves) Alilovic - Sulic, Balic, Duvnjak (1), Lackovic (3), I. Vori (4), Dominikovik, Dzomba (5/4), Horvat, Vukovic (2), P. Metlicic, Vukic (2), T. Valcic (2).
marian
