It was a hardly-earned ticket to the semi-final of the Men’s Junior World Championship against a highly strong competitor, but finally Croatia managed to tame the Brazilians in the quarter-final by 23:21 (10:11). The Croatian competitor in the semi will be Spain after their victory against Switzerland before. In the second semi-final France will face Sweden on Friday.

Croatia – Brazil 23:21 (10:11)

In the first half the Croatians stood themselves in their way. The European runners-up did not only miss three penalty shots, but additionally six clear chances against the highly strong Brazilian goalkeeper Roney Franzini. The South Americans played much more patient in attack and – like in their surprising eighth-final victory against Slovenia – had adapted their defence to the Croatian shooters. On the other hand, also Croat goalkeeper Filip Ivic showed some important saves, his team mates were not able to profit from.

Despite a 3:0 and 7:4 lead, the Europeans still were nervous and sometimes hectic in attack. The Pan-American champion managed to equalize early and even took the lead for the first time right before the halftime buzzer at 11:10.

Also in the beginning of the second half Brazil stood strong in their extremely movable defence and punished every Croatian turnover by counter-attack goals –the match was still on the edge and both goalkeepers kept their brilliant level.

Croatia grabbed the chance to have one player more on the field to get ahead to 16:14 – the first two goal advance in the second half – and even added another goal on their tally, scored by Ante Kaleb. But the hammer goals of Leonardo Santos brought Brazil back on track in the middle of the second half – but not in lead. On the other hand, the Croats still caused an unusual number of technical mistakes they could not get some between them and their competitor, in contrast: Brazil – still backed by Franzini - equalized at 21:21 and everything was fully open again.

But from that moment on, the brave Pan-Americans were not able to score anymore. A double strike of Luka Cindric and Teo Coric to the final result of 23:21 paved the way to the hardly-earned ticket to the semi-final for the Croats, while Brazil will face Switzerland in their first placement match.

On Thursday (25 July), the World Championship continues with the next matches in the placement rounds 9 – 16 in the Zetra hall in Sarajevo.

Denmark vs. Tunisia (15:00) and Bosnia-Herzegovina vs. Argentina (17:30) play in the round for the positions 13-16, Germany vs. Serbia (12:30) and Hungary vs. Slovenia are the games in the round for the positions 9-12.

The semi-finals and the first placement matches in the round for the positions 5-8 will follow on Friday (26 July). In this round Egypt will face Netherlands and Switzerland will play against Brazil.