When Croatia’s Marin Sipic slammed home the ball to score goal number 31 for Croatia in their 2025 IHF Men’s World Championship quarter-final clash against Hungary there was just one second left on the clock.

Their opponents had just 30 goals to their name and had been four ahead (29:25) just over six minutes earlier, but a 5:1 scoring run in the final five minutes sealed the fate of both teams and it was the co-hosts who would go through, while the Hungarians would go home.

“Sometimes the Gods are with you, and they give you this kind of miracle,” said Croatia coach Dagur Sigurdsson the morning after the match to the assembled Croatian media at their training base and hotel complex in Karlovac, a town one hour outside of Zagreb. “It was a difficult game to catch up with, but in the end, we had this fantastic run of five goals, and to finish a game like this is one in a million.”

With just under 50,000 inhabitants, Karlovac is known as the ‘City of Four Rivers’ due to the Korana, Kupa, Dobra and Mrežnica waterways which run through it.

And the Croatian team base there is unassuming, surrounded by nature, local residents enjoying walks, runs, walking the dogs or sitting and watching the world go by.

Like their camp, Croatia goalkeeper Ivan Pesic is also unassuming. His 1,94m, 113kg belying a softly-spoken, thoughtful individual. Anyone looking for a voice for podcasts or audio books would do well to sign him up.

And when Hungary saw their last attack fail with 10 seconds of the game remaining, the coolest guy on court and in the 15,600-sell out arena was the HBC Nantes goalkeeper, who had replaced Dominik Kuzmanovic for the last eight minutes.

After his back hit the post of his goal twice in anticipation of two failed Hungarian attempts, the first of which was from Richard Bodo, Pesic calmly picked up the ball and ran to the edge of his area. 

A first pass to Zvonimir Srna was thought about and then rejected, as the player ran into retreating Hungarian defences, but he then off-loaded to Mateo Maras, who subsequently fed the now-advanced Srna. A pass into Sipic on the line and the job was done.

“I know we had maybe five, six seconds, but before Bodo shot, I looked on the big screen and I saw we had maybe 10, 12 seconds, I don't know. But I knew if we took the ball, we must do something very fast, so first, I gave the fast pass to Maras and then ‘Cipi’ scored, very nice,” said the 35-year-old to ihf.info with a soft smile.

“My first thought was I can’t believe how we did this. I saw my guys, all around the hall; one guy has run left, one right – nobody knew nothing. 

“I tried to be very calm, because I knew if we start being nervous, it's not good for us. When I speak with the goalkeeper coach and Kuzmanovic, we always say we must be calm all game. Every ball we lose, we must be calm. I try be focused on my job. Because I tell you, if we change, if we get nervous, we change energy, we change everything, and a lot of time is not good for team and for me,” added the shot-stopper who admitted he had only “three or four hours” sleep last night.

“It was an amazing, amazing atmosphere and the supporters gave us big power and big energy. That is very important for tomorrow and with the supporters, we can do a good job but we have two games more and we must be ready for this and forget last night.”

That game tomorrow (Thursday 30 January) is against France and is a repeat of the Croatia-hosted 2009 IHF Men’s World Championship final, which the French won 24:19 at the same playing hall – Arena Zagreb.

“I don't remember it play-for-play, but I remember the spectacle and the rivalry between the two of them,” said Sigurdsson about the ‘El Clasico’ of handball, another match between two great handballing nations. “It's going to be fantastic, but it's going to be an uphill battle for us. France is in really good shape now. They are coming with confidence, but let's see what happens when we come again in the arena.”

Pesic was part of the Croatia team back in 2009, but did not feature in the final. And 16 years later he is convinced the crowd can help push them to a guaranteed medal in Oslo as they bid farewell to the Croatia-hosted part of their championship.

“In 2009 we had a very good team and, now, we also have a very good team,” he said. “But in 2009 everybody expected a medal and this time a lot of people don't, they didn't believe we can play in the semi-final. But this team, with a lot of injuries, with a lot of problems, rose and now we are playing in the semi-final. I think people now believe and will do, maybe, a better atmosphere than 2009.

“Especially in the last five minutes yesterday, I tell you, I couldn’t hear the referees. It was ‘Wow’. It's amazing. I hope tomorrow, with this atmosphere, we can do a good job.”

And his teammates could not be more in agreement.
 
“This kind of crowd boosts us energy,” said Marin Jelinic, speaking to ihf.info after the game. “Our strength is unity. Unity is Croatia. Croatia is small, but there are a lot of us everywhere. It was impossible to lose in front of such an audience. Every opponent should be afraid of Croatia in Croatia.”

“When you are tired and when you can't do it anymore, when we were down, they gave us motivation and support,” added Zvonimir Srna. “It feels amazing”.

And just before the media conference ended, ihf.info asked coach Sigurdsson about his own feelings on the bench yesterday night when surrounded by the festival of emotion.

“I look at myself as a very passionate guy,” he said with a smile. “But, sometimes, I'm also in my own head just thinking about the tactics or the next steps in the game and what is actually happening in the game. I think I'm quite a passionate guy, but it doesn't always look like that.”

With thanks to Magdalena Tuđa, Matea Haramija and Jill Žnidaršić