Croatia win and proceed to main round

17 Jan. 2021

Croatia win and proceed to main round

In their first-ever World Championship encounter, Angola gave European Championship runners-up Croatia a good challenge, only trailing by one at half-time. Eventually, the group favourites extended the lead on the way to a 28:20 win and joining Qatar to the main round. 

GROUP C
Angola vs Croatia 20:28 (11:12)

Due to a groin injury, star Croatia centre back Luka Cindric is out for the rest of the competition, but his replacement Janko Kevic, contributed one goal and three assists in his first action in Egypt. 

Angola left back Edvaldo Ferreira played a brilliant opening, scoring his team’s first two goals. However, shortly after, he was given a two-minute suspension along with his teammate Adelina Pestana. Croatia couldn’t capitalise, scoring only once to level it at 2:2. The Balkan side couldn’t find a rhythm in defence or attack, and finishing with nine turnovers in the first half. 

“We’ve expected a difficult match today, especially after our performance against Japan in the opening match, which was not what we have hoped for. We played not only against Angola today, but also a bit against ourselves,” said Ivan Martinović, who scored five goals for Croatia. 

They improved slowly, stabilizing their defence and finding spaces in attack. Still, Angola found their way through, with line player Gabriel Teca who either succeeded or caused a penalty, yet was stopped twice by Croatia goalkeeper Ivan Pešić. Relying too much on their pivot’s qualities wasn’t good enough for Angola and Croatia finally managed to pull ahead with a 5:1 run between the 43th and 53th minute. 

“Every victory is important and at the end of a match, all that matters are two points,” summarized Martinović about the first Croatia win. 

Tuesday is the group’s big showdown, when Croatia and Qatar play for the top spot in Group C.

hummel Player of the Match: Ivan Pešić, Croatia